Best Health Insurance Companies

Best Health Insurance Companies

Everybody’s talking about health care. It’s too expensive; too complex; too exclusive. While there’s a lot of debate about what can be done to fix it, there’s one truth that cannot be refuted: you need health insurance.

Going without health insurance is a constant stress and worry. Not only is there a nagging threat of something serious happening – where a week in the hospital can cost as much as many make in an entire year – but even the cost of simple doctor’s visits and prescriptions can empty your wallet faster than you can fill it.

With the importance of health insurance comes the necessity to pick the best health insurance company for your needs. To help you make the right decision, we’ve invited feedback from others who have experience with the health insurance companies you have to choose from.

This top ten list includes health care insurance companies that offer coverage in the United States.

1) BlueCross BlueShield

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) is a federation of 36 separate United States health insurance organizations and companies, providing health insurance to more than 106 million Americans. Blue Cross was founded in 1929, and became the Blue Cross Association in 1960, while Blue Shield emerged in 1939 and the Blue Shield Association was created in 1948. The two organizations merged in 1982.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield developed separately, with Blue Cross plans providing coverage for hospital services and Blue Shield covering physicians’ services.

History

Blue Cross is a name used by an association of health insurance plans throughout the United States. Its predecessor was developed by Justin Ford Kimball in 1929, while he was vice president of Baylor University’s health care facilities in Dallas, Texas. The first plan guaranteed teachers 21 days of hospital care for $6 a year, was later extended to other employee groups in Dallas, and then nationally. The American Hospital Association (AHA) adopted the Blue Cross symbol in 1939 as the emblem for plans meeting certain standards. In 1960, the AHA commission was superseded by the Blue Cross Association. Blue Cross severed its ties with the AHA in 1972.

Blue Shield was developed by employers in lumber and mining camps of the Pacific Northwest to provide medical care by paying monthly fees to medical service bureaus composed of groups of physicians. In 1939, the first official Blue Shield Plan was founded in California. In 1948, the symbol was informally adopted by nine plans called the Associated Medical Care Plan, and was later renamed the National Association of Blue Shield Plans.

In the 1960s the US government chose to partner with Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies to administer Medicare.

In 1982, Blue Shield merged with The Blue Cross Association to form the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association (BCBS).

Prior to 1986, organizations administering BCBS were tax exempt under 501(c)(4) as social welfare plans. However, the Tax Reform Act of 1986revoked the exemption, because the plans sold commercial-type insurance. They became 501(m) organizations, subject to federal taxation, but entitled to “special tax benefits” under IRC 833.

In 1994, BCBS changed to allow its licensees to be for-profit corporations. During 2010, Health Care Service Corporation, the parent company of BCBS in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Montana and Illinois, nearly doubled its income to $1.09 billion in 2010, and began four years of billion-dollar profits. In the final spending bill for FY 2015 after much lobbying since 2010, nonprofit Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans continue to have special tax breaks that were understood to be threatened by the Affordable Care Act of 2010.

2)UnitedHealthCare

3)Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente (/ˈkaɪzər pɜːrməˈnɛnteɪ/) is an integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California, United States, founded in 1945 by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney Garfield. Kaiser Permanente is made up of three distinct but interdependent groups of entities: the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and its regional operating subsidiaries; Kaiser Foundation Hospitals; and the regional Permanente Medical Groups. As of 2014, Kaiser Permanente operates in eight states and the District of Columbia, and is the largest managed careorganization in the United States.

Kaiser Permanente has 9.6 million health plan members, 177,445 employees, 17,791 physicians, 49,778 nurses, 38 medical centers, and 620 medical offices. In 2014, the non-profit Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals entities reported a combined $3.1 billion in net income on $56.4 billion in operating revenues. Each Permanente Medical Group operates as a separate for-profit partnership or professional corporation in its individual territory, and while none publicly reports its financial results, each is primarily funded by reimbursements from its respective regional Kaiser Foundation Health Plan entity. KFHP is one of the largest not for profit organizations in the United States.

Kaiser has had disputes with its employee’s unions, faced civil and criminal charges for patient dumping, faced action by regulators over the quality of care it provided, especially to patients with mental health issues, and has faced criticism from activists and action from regulators over the size of its cash reserves.

4)Aetna

Aetna, Inc. /ˈɛtnə/ is an American managed health care company, which sells traditional and consumer directed health care insurance plans and related services, such as medical, pharmaceutical, dental, behavioral health, long-term care, and disability plans. Aetna is a member of theFortune 100.

Members

Aetna offers health care, dental, pharmacy, group life, disability, and long-term care insurance and employee benefits, primarily through employer-paid (fully or partly) insurance and benefit programs, and through Medicare. Membership numbers: (as of June 30, 2013)

• 22 million—medical members
• 14.3 million—dental members
• 13.8 million—pharmacy members
• 13.609 million—group insurance members
• 1,000,000+ — health-care professionals
• 597,000+ — primary-care doctors and specialists
• 5,300+ — hospitals

Lobbying and campaign contributions

Aetna has spent more than $2.0 million in 2009 on lobbying. The company spent $809,793 between January 2009 and the end of March 2009—up 41 percent from the same period in 2008.Aetna’s campaign contributions include more than $110,000 to US Senator Joe Lieberman (ID-CT) in 2009. From 2005 through 2009, Aetna contributed $56,250 to Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, making Aetna the senator’s seventh highest contributor over that time period.

Quality of care

In the California Health Care Quality Report Card 2011 Edition, Aetna received 2 out of 4 stars in Meeting National Standards of Care and 1 out of 4 in Members Rate Their HMO.  In the California Health Care Quality Report Card 2010 Edition,Aetna received 3 out of 4 stars in both Meeting National Standards of Care and How Members Rate Their HMO, for a rating of “Good” (out of “Poor, ” “Fair, ” “Good, ” or “Excellent”).

5)Humana

Humana Inc. is an American Louisville, Kentucky-based for-profit health insurance company. As of 2014 Humana has had over 13 million customers in the U.S.,  reported a 2013 revenue of US$41.3 billion, and has had over 52,000 employees. In 2013, the company ranked 73 on the Fortune 500 list, which made it the highest ranked (by revenues) company based in Kentucky. It has been the third largest health insurance in the nation.

The U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services investigated Humana in 2009 for sending flyers to MediCare recipients that the AARPcharacterized as deceptive. The company’s managed care model has also been criticized for ethical lapses and limitations.

The health insurer Aetna said on Friday July 3, 2015 that it had agreed to acquire its smaller rival Humana for $37 billion in cash and stock.

6)Molina Healthcare

Molina Healthcare (NYSE: MOH) is a managed care company headquartered in Long Beach, California, United States. In 2015, Molina Healthcare was ranked 301 in Fortune 500. In 2015, the company’s health plans served about 3.5 million people through government-based healthcare programs.

History

Molina Healthcare was founded in 1980 by C. David Molina, an emergency room physician in Long Beach, CA. He had seen an influx of patients using the emergency room for common illnesses such as a sore throat or the flu because they were being turned away by doctors who would not accept Medi-Cal. As a result of his emergency room work, Dr. Molina established his first primary care clinic with the goal of treating the lowest-income patients, regardless of their ability to pay.

The company is now run by Dr. Molina’s son, J. Mario Molina, MD, who is also a physician. He is the current president and CEO of the company. John Molina, Mario’s younger brother, is the current CFO of Molina Healthcare.The two took over the Molina’s operations after their father died in 1996 and continued to expand the company. According to SEC filings, in 2013 Dr. Mario Molina received total compensation of $11,903,124 and John Molina received $6,362,104. Altogether the top five executives at Molina Healthcare – J. Mario Molina, John C. Molina, Terry P. Bayer, Joseph W. White and Jeff D. Barlow – were paid a total of $26,425,047. C. David Molina’s daughter Martha Bernadett, MD is also a part of Molina Healthcare. Since receiving two Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awards in 2002, Dr. Bernadett has served as the Executive Vice President of Research and Innovation at Molina Healthcare. She founded the Molina Institute for Cultural Competency, Book Buddies and the Molina Foundation, a non-profit organization to promote access to education and health care to reduce disparities.

7)CIGNA

Cigna is an American worldwide health services organization. Its insurance subsidiaries are major providers of medical, dental, disability, life and accident insurance and related products and services, the majority of which are offered through employers and other groups (e.g. governmental and non-governmental organizations, unions and associations). Cigna also offers Medicare and Medicaid products and health, life and accident insurance coverages primarily to individuals in the U.S. and selected international markets. In addition to its ongoing operations described above, Cigna also has certain run-off operations, including a Run-off Reinsurance segment. In the Phoenix, Arizona, metropolitan area, Cigna runs a full-service staff-model HMO (health maintenance organization) with satellite clinics throughout the region, known as the Cigna Medical Group Their tag line is ‘We Can Help You Be at Your Best’

8)Celtic Healthcare

About Celtic

Innovative Healthcare at Home

Celtic Healthcare is dedicated to providing patients with “Innovative Healthcare at Home.” It takes much more than compassionate care to achieve this. We incorporate the most innovative technology into our Homecare, Hospice, and Virtual Care services. By streamlining the administrative and clinical processes and procedures, Celtic Healthcare delivers extraordinary customer communication, boosts healthcare outcomes, and enhances the quality of life for our patients and their families.

Some of the most innovative technologies we incorporate into our practices are:

CIBS (Celtic Integrated Business Systems) software that keeps medical records online and efficiently automates workflow assignments and communication – together with our CIBS ePortal – to provide a conduit for physician offices to access patient information from virtually any location, quickly and securely, sign orders online, and help maintain information needed to document and bill for care plan oversight (CPO)
Telehealth technology that allows patients to take an active role in their own chronic disease management and lifestyle maintenance – in combination with our Virtual Chronic Care program and IVR (Interactive Voice Response) technology to facilitate managing care transitions, medication and lifestyle management, daily symptom management, and ultimately enables patient self-management and reduces avoidable hospitalizations
CPA (Celtic’s Personal Assistant) that supports provider scheduling, expenses tracking, and automated mileage reimbursement
CIP (Celtic’s Information Portal) that allows team members to access documents, communicate through discussion boards, and read announcements that will keep them up-to-date on all divisions and departments within Celtic Healthcare
eLearn Learning Management System (LMS) that provides workforce development for our team members with university-like education to ensure the most educated, up-to-date, and informed clinicians are caring for our patients
We continually seek and implement the latest and most innovative technologies, creative solutions, and outcomes-based practices to provide the best care possible. Technology provides the backbone to our body of dedicated, skilled, and compassionate team members, helping us deliver the mission that is closest to our hearts: “Innovative Healthcare at Home.”

85%
*Leveraging technology, our Virtual Chronic Care program reduces hospital re-admission by 85% among chronic patients. Learn more about Virtual Care.

9)Assurant Health

10)Altius (Coventry)