Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations (USD $) In Millions, except Per Share data, unless otherwise specified	12 Months Ended
	Dec. 31, 2011	Dec. 31, 2010	Dec. 31, 2009
Revenues:
Premiums	$ 91,983	$ 85,405	$ 79,315
Services	6,613	5,819	5,306
Products	2,612	2,322	1,925
Investment and other income	654	609	592
Total revenues	101,862	94,155	87,138
Operating costs:
Medical costs	74,332	68,841	65,289
Operating costs	15,557	14,270	12,734
Cost of products sold	2,385	2,116	1,765
Depreciation and amortization	1,124	1,064	991
Total operating costs	93,398	86,291	80,779
Earnings from operations	8,464	7,864	6,359
Interest expense	(505)	(481)	(551)
Earnings (loss) before income taxes	7,959	7,383	5,808
Provision for income taxes	(2,817)	(2,749)	(1,986)
Net earnings	$ 5,142	$ 4,634	$ 3,822
Basic net earnings per common share	$ 4.81	$ 4.14	$ 3.27
Diluted net earnings per common share	$ 4.73	$ 4.10	$ 3.24
Basic weighted-average number of common shares outstanding	1,070	1,120	1,168
Dilutive effect of common stock equivalents	17	11	11
Diluted weighted-average number of common shares outstanding	1,087	1,131	1,179
Anti-dilutive shares excluded from the calculation of dilutive effect of common stock equivalents	47	94	107
Cash dividends declared per common share	$ 0.6125	$ 0.4050	$ 0.0300