Organization	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2015
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]
Organization	Organization References to the terms “we”, “our”, “us”, “Anthem” or the “Company” used throughout these Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements refer to Anthem, Inc., an Indiana corporation, and unless the context otherwise requires, its direct and indirect subsidiaries. We are one of the largest health benefits companies in terms of medical membership in the United States, serving 38.7 medical members through our affiliated health plans as of September 30, 2015. We offer a broad spectrum of network-based managed care plans to large and small employer, individual, Medicaid and Medicare markets. Our managed care plans include: preferred provider organizations, or PPOs; health maintenance organizations, or HMOs; point-of-service, or POS, plans; traditional indemnity plans and other hybrid plans, including consumer-driven health plans, or CDHPs; and hospital only and limited benefit products. In addition, we provide a broad array of managed care services to self-funded customers, including claims processing, underwriting, stop loss insurance, actuarial services, provider network access, medical cost management, disease management, wellness programs and other administrative services. We provide an array of specialty and other insurance products and services such as dental, vision, life and disability insurance benefits, radiology benefit management and analytics-driven personal health care. We also provide services to the federal government in connection with the Federal Employee Program, or FEP. We also sold contact lenses, eyeglasses and other ocular products through our 1-800 CONTACTS, Inc., or 1-800 CONTACTS, business, which was divested on January 31, 2014. We are an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, or BCBSA, an association of independent health benefit plans. We serve our members as the Blue Cross licensee for California and as the Blue Cross and Blue Shield, or BCBS, licensee for Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri (excluding 30 counties in the Kansas City area), Nevada, New Hampshire, New York (as BCBS in 10 New York City metropolitan and surrounding counties, and as Blue Cross or BCBS in selected upstate counties only), Ohio, Virginia (excluding the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.) and Wisconsin. In a majority of these service areas we do business as Anthem Blue Cross, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, and Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, or Empire Blue Cross (in our New York service areas). We also conduct business through arrangements with other BCBS licensees in the states of South Carolina and Texas. We conduct business through our AMERIGROUP Corporation, or Amerigroup, subsidiary, in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Tennessee, Texas and Washington. We conduct business through our recently acquired Simply Healthcare Holdings, Inc., or Simply Healthcare, subsidiary in the state of Florida. We also serve customers throughout the country as HealthLink, UniCare (including a non-risk arrangement with the state of Massachusetts), and in certain Arizona, California, Nevada, New York and Virginia markets through our CareMore Health Group, Inc., or CareMore, subsidiary. We are licensed to conduct insurance operations in all 50 states through our subsidiaries.

Organization

References to the terms “we”, “our”, “us”, “Anthem” or the “Company” used throughout these Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements refer to Anthem, Inc., an Indiana corporation, and unless the context otherwise requires, its direct and indirect subsidiaries.

We are one of the largest health benefits companies in terms of medical membership in the United States, serving 38.7 medical members through our affiliated health plans as of September 30, 2015. We offer a broad spectrum of network-based managed care plans to large and small employer, individual, Medicaid and Medicare markets. Our managed care plans include: preferred provider organizations, or PPOs; health maintenance organizations, or HMOs; point-of-service, or POS, plans; traditional indemnity plans and other hybrid plans, including consumer-driven health plans, or CDHPs; and hospital only and limited benefit products. In addition, we provide a broad array of managed care services to self-funded customers, including claims processing, underwriting, stop loss insurance, actuarial services, provider network access, medical cost management, disease management, wellness programs and other administrative services. We provide an array of specialty and other insurance products and services such as dental, vision, life and disability insurance benefits, radiology benefit management and analytics-driven personal health care. We also provide services to the federal government in connection with the Federal Employee Program, or FEP. We also sold contact lenses, eyeglasses and other ocular products through our 1-800 CONTACTS, Inc., or 1-800 CONTACTS, business, which was divested on January 31, 2014.

We are an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, or BCBSA, an association of independent health benefit plans. We serve our members as the Blue Cross licensee for California and as the Blue Cross and Blue Shield, or BCBS, licensee for Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri (excluding 30 counties in the Kansas City area), Nevada, New Hampshire, New York (as BCBS in 10 New York City metropolitan and surrounding counties, and as Blue Cross or BCBS in selected upstate counties only), Ohio, Virginia (excluding the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.) and Wisconsin. In a majority of these service areas we do business as Anthem Blue Cross, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia, and Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield, or Empire Blue Cross (in our New York service areas). We also conduct business through arrangements with other BCBS licensees in the states of South Carolina and Texas. We conduct business through our AMERIGROUP Corporation, or Amerigroup, subsidiary, in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Tennessee, Texas and Washington. We conduct business through our recently acquired Simply Healthcare Holdings, Inc., or Simply Healthcare, subsidiary in the state of Florida. We also serve customers throughout the country as HealthLink, UniCare (including a non-risk arrangement with the state of Massachusetts), and in certain Arizona, California, Nevada, New York and Virginia markets through our CareMore Health Group, Inc., or CareMore, subsidiary. We are licensed to conduct insurance operations in all 50 states through our subsidiaries.