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Another very important area to evaluate is their customer service and responsiveness to claims and other customer needs. How good a value a company represents, that is premium costs to benefits paid, should be looked at, as well.
What are the current top health insurance companies?
According to the Fortune magazine, which rates companies on financial strength and future earnings potential, the top mutual insurance companies are in order:
- New York Life Insurance (individual and group health insurance)
- Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance (long-term care insurance)
- Northwestern Mutual (long-term care insurance)
- Guardian Life Insurance Company of America (group dental insurance)
- Mutual of Omaha Insurance (Medicare supplement insurance, long-term care insurance, critical illness insurance)
- Western & Southern Financial Group (critical illness insurance)
The top stock health insurance companies are in order:
- MetLife (long-term care insurance, dental insurance)
- Prudential (long-term care insurance)
- Aflac (supplemental insurance, disease specific insurance, critical care insurance, dental, hospital confinement and indemnity and lump sum cancer/critical illness insurance)
- Lincoln National (group dental and critical illness insurance)
- Unum (supplemental health insurance and critical illness insurance)
- Genworth Financial (individual and group long-term care insurance)
- Principal Financial Group (group dental and vision insurance)
- Reinsurance Group of America (group health reinsurance)
How can I determine the financial strength of a health insurance company?
The company that most people use is A.M. Best. They measure and rate key areas of insurance company performance such as:
- Their financial strength to meet their obligations to policyholders
- Its credit rating which measures it ability to borrow when necessary and gives an idea of their ability to pay off such obligations
- Its debt rating which tells how well they can pay any debt they have issued to people and institutions
A.M. Best is considered by many to be the gold standard of insurance rating firms in the world. Another objective rating firm, meaning that they receive no compensation from firms they rate, is Weiss Ratings.
Is there a way to determine quality of customer service?
It is hard to tell what the quality of a company’s customer service is before you do business with them. There are a few things you can do to see what they are like ahead of time. First, call the customer support center and ask questions. You can measure things like:
- The time spent on hold
- The knowledge of the person in transferring your call to the appropriate person
- The time it takes to accomplish that
You will also get a sense of the general attitude the support personnel by talking to them about various services their company offers. You can ask for information to be sent to you by mail, note how long it takes to receive it and if it covers the areas you asked about.
You can check with your family, friends, and co-workers to see if they have any positive or negative experiences with any of the companies you are considering. Check with your state insurance commission to see if any health insurance complaints are lodged against a company you are thinking about buying a policy from and to make sure that they are properly licensed to do business in your state. There are companies that will provide detailed customer service evaluations for a fee as well.
How can I rate the value of policies that health insurance companies offer?
The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) has health plan report cards for most health insurance plans. The American Medical Association can give you information on the doctors in your prospective health insurance plan.
To find FREE health insurance rates online quickly and easily, simply type your ZIP code into the free box on this page and you can compare rates now!