Health Insurance Blog

When JD Power & Associates rated the top health plans in Pennsylvania, they also included Delaware in a region which included both Pennsylvania & Delaware.  However, of the eleven private health insurance companies that were included in the study and part of this region, eight of them where Pennsylvania health plans, and the three that weren’t exclusively Pennsylvania plans (Aetna, CIGNA, and UnitedHealthCare) did not factor into consideration among the top plans and were all rated as being below average in overall experience.

According to the study, the top health insurance plan in Pennsylvania was Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, which was also judged to be one of the best the nation has to offer.  Finishing a close second to Highmark BCBS, was another Highmark inc. company and Blue Cross Blue Shield Licensee Highmark Blue Shield.

Highmark BCBS serves health insurance customers in Western Pennsylvania, while Highmark Blue Shield serves Central PA.

Other Pennsylvania health plans that fared particularly well in the study include Capital BlueCross and Geisinger Health Plan, both were rated above average.

In JD Power & associates 2009 rankings of the top health plans in Ohio, Medical Mutual took top honors.  Based on JD Power surveys, Medical Mutual of Ohio is among the best health plans in the country.

Humana is the 2nd best health plan in Ohio according to this study of well over 100 health plans nationally, and also among the best in the country.  Other Ohio health plans that were rated include:  Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield & Aetna which were both rated as average, and CIGNA & UnitedHealthCare which were rated as below average.

More information about Ohio health insurance.

US News Top Ohio Health Plans

JD Power & Associates ranked Humana the top rated health plan in Texas for 2009, in overall customer experience.  In addition to being rated as the top health plan in Texas, The Humana health plan that operates in Texas was rated as being among the best in the nation ( 5 out of 5 stars).

Other private health plans that faired well included CIGNA & Aetna who each received 4 of 5 stars, which denotes them as being better than most.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas was rated as below average, one of the few Blue Cross Blue Shield member health plans that did not fair well in the JD Power survey.  BCBSTX was rated below average.

More information about Texas health insurance.

J.D. Powers & Associates rated the top private health plans in the heartland states (Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota), and the results were as follows.

Similar to many of the other 17 regions in the JD Power Survey, a Blue Cross Blue Shield health plan took top honors.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska was named the top health plan in this region based on overall customer experience and among the best in the nation.

Three other Blue Cross plans were rated as “better than most”  (4 stars out of 5 in overall experience):  BCBS Kansas, Wellmark BCBS Iowa, and BCBS Kansas City.

Health plans Aetna, CIGNA, UnitedHealthCare, and Coventry Healthcare were rated as being below average.

More information about health insurance in the heartland states:  Nebraska health insurance, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota

The state of Florida was not included in the Southeast region when J.D. Powers ranked the top health plans in the Southeast, in their rating of the top health plans in 17 distinct regions, Florida is its own region.  That being said, J.D. Power and Associates rated Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida as the top rated health plan in Florida.

BCBSFL was rated as being among the best health plans in the country, as was Humana, coming in just behind the Florida Blue Cross Blue Shield plan.

Other Florida health plans that were rated as part of this study included UnitedHealthCare, CIGNA, and Aetna.  UnitedHealthCare was given 4 stars out of 5 in overall experience (better than most) while CIGNA & Aetna were given 2 stars, a below average rating.

More about Florida health insurance.

June 1, CIGNA began offering individual health insurance plans in Connecticut.  Their portfolio of health plans for CT residents include open access managed care plans and high-deductible health plans that are HSA eligible.  Until this recent product launch, CIGNA had only offered health insurance to mid to large employer groups in Connecticut.

In addition to offering health plans for individuals in Connecticut, CIGNA also offers individual health plans in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee & Texas.

More information about Connecticut health insurance.

J.D. Power and Associates rating of the top health plans for the South East Central region lists two health plans tied for the top spot for 2009 - Anthem Blue Cross Blue shield of Kentucky and BlueCross BlueShield of Alabama.

CIGNA & Humana finished close behind while still receiving designation as being among the nations best.

Aetna & Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee were rated as “about average” while  United HealthCare and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi were rated below average.

According to J.D. Power and Associates, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan was the top rated California health plan based on their 2009 survey.

Based on their survey and analysis of more than 130 health plans nationally (broken up into 17 distinct regions), Kasier Foundation Health plan was the tops in the California region and among the best nationally.

The other health plans from California that were surveyed all performed below average.  They included:  Blue Cross of California, Blue Shield of California, Aetna, HealthNet, Pacificare, and CIGNA.

More information about the J.D. Power 2009 Health Plan Ratings.

More information about California health insurance.

The top North Carolina health insurance plans as ranked by US News and World report’s annual health plan ranking report are displayed below.  Of particular note is that a number of health insurers including the states oldest and largest health insurance company, BCBSNC, have chosen to not supply internal data that is required to provide accurate health plan rankings.  As a result, BCBSNC, as well other North Carolina health plans were not included in the 2008 rankings.

The top North Carolina health plans that particiapted in this report are

1. CIGNA Healthcare of North Carolina
2. Aetna Health of the Carolinas
3. UnitedHealthcare of North Carolina

US News and World Report’s 2008 ranking of the top Illinois Health Insurance Plans are listed below.  Based on 1) consumer surveys and 2) success in preventing and treating illness compared with average plan.

1. PersonalCare Insurance of Illinois (conducting business exclusively in Illinois)
2. Health Alliance Medical Plans (Illinois, Iowa)
3. CIGNA Healthcare of St. Louis (Illinois, Missouri)
4. Medical Associates Health Plan (Illinois, Iowa)
5. United Healthcare plan of the River Valley (Illinois, Tennessee, Iowa, Virginia
6. OSF Health Plans (Illinois)
7. United Healthcare of the Midwest (Illinois, Kansas, Missouri)
8. United Healthcare of the Midlands (Illinois, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Iowa)
9. CIGNA Healthcare of Illinois (Illinois, Indiana)
10. United Healthcare of Illinois (Illinois, Indiana)

You’ll notice, on this top 10 list, there are 4 distinct United Healthcare plans listed as well as 2 CIGNA health plans.  This generally results from various regional health plans being responsible for a service area that covers specific MSAs, or specific regions within a state or states.

Blue Cross Blue Shield and Aetna are noticably absent from this list