Shopping for health insurance can be complicated; not only do you have to figure out premiums, deductibles and copays, but you also need to consider plan options and networks.
To help you choose a health insurance company, we’ve ranked the best health insurance companies of 2023. Insurance.com’s sister site, Insure.com, conducted a survey of health insurance customers. The editors then combined the results with third-party data to rank health insurance companies on multiple factors, such as customer services and affordable premiums.
Kaiser Permanente came out on top as the best health insurance company, and UnitedHealthcare came in a close second. Aetna took third place.
Read on to find out how health insurance companies scored and find the best health insurance plan for your needs.
Key takeaways
- Kaiser Permanente narrowly beat out United Healthcare for the first place spot on our best health insurance companies list.
- Kaiser, which offers HMO plans, topped the polls for customer satisfaction, ease of service, trustworthiness and more.
- Anthem was rated best for provider network and was the most likely to be renewed.
The top 10 health insurance companies in the U.S. for 2023
The last thing you want to worry about when you’re sick is your health insurance coverage, which is why it’s important to find the right plan before you need it. We asked current customers to rate their health insurance company on various points, from overall customer satisfaction to deductibles and provider networks.
These are the top ten health insurance companies based on the results of that survey as well as third-party ratings, including the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).
- Kaiser Permanente
- UnitedHealthcare
- Aetna
- Anthem
- Humana
- BCBS of Michigan
- Blue Shield of California
- BCBS of Florida
- Molina Healthcare
- Cigna
Kaiser Permanente: 4.2 stars
California-based Kaiser Permanente topped several of the survey categories and also ranked well in third-party ratings. Its overall score of 4.164 in the ratings landed it just above the second-place company.
Kaiser was rated best for customer satisfaction, ease of service and trust and tied for policy offerings. It was the company most likely to be recommended to others, as well. The NCQA gave Kaiser 4.5 out of 5 stars.
UnitedHealthcare: 4.2 stars
Although the rounded-up score tied with Kaiser, UnitedHealthcare’s full score was 4.158, a second-place finish by a very small margin.
UnitedHealthcare offers wider availability than Kaiser, and it was ranked best in the survey for its referral policy.
Aetna: 3.8 stars
Ranked well for affordability, Aetna is also a widely available option for health insurance that scored well in the survey and is well-rated by third-party sources.
In the survey, Aetna scored best for affordability, and it was also top-rated for its online services, including the website and app.
Anthem: 3.6 stars
Anthem won the fourth-place slot with a rating of 3.64 stars, barely beating out fifth-place company Humana. More people said they would choose to renew with Anthem than any other company, and it also top-ranked for its provider network.
Humana: 3.6 stars
Humana’s overall rating, before we rounded it off, was 3.61 stars; that ranked it just below Anthem and in the fifth-place slot by a very small margin.
More than 90% of Humana’s customers said they’d recommend the company to others, and it also performed well in the provider network category.
BCBS of Michigan: 3.5 stars
Available to residents of Michigan and anyone who works for a company based in Michigan, BCBS of Michigan had solid scores across the survey categories and ranked at No. 6 in the best health insurance company list.
Blue Shield of California: 3.3 stars
Another Blue Cross Blue Shield branded company, Blue Shield of California, earned the No. 7 spot on the list with a solid showing in the survey and a high NCQA rating of 4 out of 5 stars, as well.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida: 3 stars
At 2.98 stars before we rounded it up, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida slipped into the eighth-place spot. The company performed well in our survey overall, and customers scored it particularly well for low deductibles and a good provider network.
Molina: 3 stars
At 2.96 stars, Molina came in just a hair below Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida to land in ninth place. Customers gave it high marks for trustworthiness, which is always a tough category for any insurance company.
Cigna: 2.9 stars
In tenth place on the best health insurance companies list, Cigna is a large company that is widely available and offers good integration with pharmacy benefits. The company also offers a large provider network.
The best health insurance companies by category
We ranked the companies above for overall performance, but some stood out in particular categories. Here are the winners for customer satisfaction, low deductibles, provider network and more.
- Best for customer satisfaction: Kaiser
- Best for ease of service: Kaiser
- Best for policy offerings: Kaiser and Blue California
- Best digital experience: Aetna
- Best for seniors: Humana
- Best low deductibles: Blue California
- Best for its provider network: Anthem
- Best for its referral policy: UnitedHealthcare
- Most likely to be recommended to others: Kaiser
- Most trustworthy: Kaiser
- Best for renewals: Anthem
How to choose the best health insurance company and plan
When you’re shopping for health insurance on the individual market, the choices can seem overwhelming. The first step is to determine your monthly budget for premiums and balance that with the out-of-pocket costs you’re willing to pay.
As a general rule, the more you pay monthly, the lower your deductible, copay and/or coinsurance amounts will be. So, you pay more monthly and less when you need care.
If you have a lot of need for medical care throughout the year, paying more a month to ensure lower out-of-pocket costs makes sense. However, if you’re young and healthy and don’t anticipate a lot of visits to the doctor, you can likely choose a lower monthly premium and a higher deductible.
The next step is to decide what kind of provider network you want, which helps to determine the type of health insurance plan you should buy. Your choices include HMO, PPO, POS, and possibly others.
With an HMO, you will have a primary care provider (PCP) who coordinates your care and no out-of-network coverage. This usually means you will pay less.
With a PPO, you’ll have coverage both in and out of network and can usually make appointments with specialists without a referral. This usually means higher premiums.
Some companies offer both HMO and PPO plans, while others are solely HMO. There are also a few hybrid plan options to choose from. Knowing what you want for coverage will help you narrow down your company choices. From there, you can look at the availability of providers in your area and, of course, the company’s reputation.
Methodology
Insurance.com’s sister site, Insure.com, in the fall of 2022 surveyed more than 1,500 insurance consumers (775 people with health insurance). The survey was conducted by online market research company Slice MR.
Respondents were asked to name their insurer and then grade it in the following categories – customer satisfaction, ease of service and policy offerings. The percentage of respondents who said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their insurer is presented in the results.
Respondents were then asked to rank their insurer’s top three attributes out of more than a dozen presented – such as its provider network. For a number one choice, five points were given; for a second choice, three points; and for a third choice, a single point. The total points for each choice – first, second and third – were then divided by the number of each company’s customers who responded to that survey question to create a percentage. Those percentages are presented in the results as scores.
Respondents were then asked if they would recommend their insurer to someone else and if they planned to renew their policies. The percentage who said yes is presented in the results.
They also were given the statement “I trust my insurance company” and asked if they strongly agreed, agreed, disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement. The percentage of those who said they agreed or strongly agreed is presented in the results.
The editors compiled the survey results and then selected – based on the number of survey responses – the top companies for further evaluation. Insure.com needed 20 or more of a company’s customers to respond to the survey for that insurer to be included in the ranking, although in some categories the editors did consider companies with 18 or 19 responses.
They then collected National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ complaint data, which ranks a company by the number of customer complaints it receives, and National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) ratings, which evaluate health plans on, among other things, member satisfaction.
With the help of Prof. David Marlett, Ph.D., managing director of the Brantley Risk and Insurance Center at Appalachian State University, the editors created a rating system to determine which insurance companies were best in each sector. For health insurers, we used the following weights to calculate the overall score for each company:
Survey – 60% of total score (10% for customer satisfaction, 10% for trustworthiness, 10% for recommending the carrier to another, 10% for renewing with their current insurer, and 20% if they consider their insurer the best for affordability)
NCQA – 25% of total score
NAIC – 15% of total score
Scores were added and each insurer was awarded from 1 to 5 stars. No insurer in our star ranking received less than 1 star and the highest possible ranking is 5 stars.
