Where others are crying failure and leaving the marketplace,Anthem has not only gained customers under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act(PPACA) and plans to stick with the program.

According to Forbes, although other companies claim not to havebeen so fortunate — UnitedHealth Group, forinstance, is dropping out of all but a few exchanges — Anthem seesopportunity beckoning. After a year of growth — not only wereits earnings better than expected, but it added 1 million newcustomers since the end of last year, 184,000 of whom wereObamacare enrollees — the company expects to do even better nextyear, particularly if its planned merger with Cigna gets the greenlight.

Anthem’s Blue Cross and Blue Shield brand is selling in 14states, and the company expects to remain in those markets nextyear. Joe Swedish, Anthem’s chairman, was quoted as saying in ananalyst conference call, “I think a sustainable model can be built… This remains a dynamic marketplace. Over time, we do believe weare well positioned for sustained growth.”

Earnings for Anthem also came in higher thanexepected, beating analyst estimates by more than 10 cents pershare, coming in at $3.46 for the first quarter. Its business grewin government, commercial, and specialty insurance sectors. Notonly did it gain customers from the exchanges, its Medicarebusiness grew thanks to expanded coverage — Medicaidmembership rose 7.6 percent and revenue from premiums grew 7.8percent to $18.99 billion.

The company also said it now expects revenue for 2016 to fall inthe range of $81 billion to $82 billion, up from its previousestimate of $80 billion to $81 billion.

Of course the company has raised prices on exchange products —and it’s also benefiting from an exodus of other providers, some ofwhich were cooperative plans that fell apart. Some companiescomplained that purchasers of coverage on public exchanges havebeen more in need of medical care and thus more expensive to theirinsurers; that negative risk profile has given them pause.

Not so Anthem, which plans to complete the Cigna merger in thesecond half of the year. It sees the move as allowing the resultingcompany to offer a more financially stable book of business to itscustomers.