OREANDA-NEWS. Fitch Ratings has published a new special report containing a comparative analysis of the key factors driving U.S. health insurers' ratings. According to Fitch, on average, 'higher' rating influences are attributed to health insurers' market positon and to financial performance factors, and 'lower' influences are attributed to investment and reserve adequacy factors.

The report includes summaries of Ratings Navigator 'scores' assigned to key factors such as market position, capitalization and leverage, and financial performance that underlie each insurer's rating. The analysis looks at metrics Fitch considers when assigning the scores, the score's trend and the score's relative influence on the insurers' ratings.

The report also includes a summary of average scores and relative importance by factor and an insurer-by-insurer summary of the difference between scores assigned to each factor and the insurers' ratings. Average scores range from 'aa-' for debt service and reserve adequacy to 'a' for market position and financial performance.