Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan health insurance review and ratings 2024

BCBS of Michigan tied with Aetna for 10th place on Insure.com’s 2024 Best Health Insurance Companies list – earning 3.66 stars out of 5.

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Our take

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan ranks highly as a good all-around health insurance provider. The company had the highest rating for policy offerings, recommendations and renewals in our survey of health insurance customers. 

It received a strong 4 out of 5 stars from the National Committee for Quality Assurance. NCQA evaluates healthcare plans on, among other things, member satisfaction. 

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan ranked tied for 10th in Insure.com’s list of the Best Health Insurance Companies for 2024.

However, it’s largely limited to residents in the State of Michigan or employees with companies that are headquartered there.

BCBS of Michigan
BCBS of Michigan Ratings
Overall Rating: 3.7
Price/Affordability: 3.7
NCQA: 4.00
Customer Satisfaction: 4.1
AM Best Rating: A

Pros and Cons

Pros:
  • 100% of customers surveyed said they’d stick with the company
  • It received the top score for renewals and policy offerings
  • It received high marks from the NCQA
Cons:
  • It wasn’t rated as highly as competitors for price and affordability
  • Only available to Michigan residents or employees with companies headquartered there

Below is Insure.com’s review of the company. It’s based on third-party metrics and our in-depth survey of insurance customers. Find the full methodology here, including an explanation of our survey scores.

How much does BCBS of Michigan insurance cost?

Customers didn’t rate the BCBS of Michigan as highly as other companies in our ranking for price/affordability. Kaiser Permanente received the highest rating here, followed by Molina.

Insurance companyPrice/affordability stars 
BCBS of Michigan3.73
Molina4.11
BCBS of California3.54

Below is a look at how BCBS of Michigan’s rates in Michigan compare with those of Centene and Molina. These are 2024 healthcare exchange rates for a single, 40-year-old male in excellent health with an annual income of $70,000.

Insurance companyRate/MonthPlan
BCBS of Michigan$450.02Blue Cross Select Silver Saver – HMO
Centene$368.53Complete Silver – HMO
Molina $338.80Silver 1 250 – HMO

How BCBS of Michigan scores for customer satisfaction

Our survey found that 85% of BCBS of Michigan’s customers think it does a good job.

It also scored well against other insurers when looking at average J.D. Power 2023 U.S. Commercial Member Health Plan Study scores for Michigan. J.D. Power measures health plans for overall customer satisfaction. The Michigan J.D. Power average is 722.

Insurance companyCustomer satisfaction starsJ.D. Power overall satisfaction score (out of 1,000)
BCBS of Michigan4.05727
United Healthcare4.06716
BCBS of Florida3.83NR

How BCBS of Michigan scores for policy offerings

BCBS of Michigan topped this category, with almost 90% of its customers saying they’re satisfied with the policies offered. 

Insurance companyPercent of customers who score their insurance company highly for policy offerings
BCBS of Michigan88%
Horizon84%
BCBS of North Carolina79%

Would current customers recommend BCBS of Michigan to others?

They all would. The poll found that 100% of the insurer’s customers would recommend BCBS of Michigan to others. Horizon and Molina tied for second place in this category

Insurance companyPercent of customers who would recommend their health insurance company to others
BCBS of Michigan100%
Horizon97%
Molina97%

How trustworthy is BCBS of Michigan?

The majority of its customers believe BCBS of Michigan is worthy of their trust. It ranked fourth in this category, behind only Kaiser Permanente, Highmark and Horizon. 

Insurance companyPercent of customers who say they trust their health insurance company
BCBS of Michigan80%
Kaiser Permanente86%
Horizon81%

Do current BCBS of Michigan customers plan to renew?

When customers were asked if they planned to renew with BCBS of Michigan, 98% said they would. The insurer tied with Highmark for the highest rating in this category.

Insurance companyPercent of customers who plan to renew with their health insurance company
BCBS of Michigan98%
Highmark98%
Horizon97%

How BCBS of Michigan scores for digital experience

Just 17% of survey respondents were satisfied with BCBS of Michigan’s digital experience, which includes its website and mobile app. But it should be noted, none of the companies in our survey did especially well here. 

Insurance companyPercent of customers who highly rank the company’s digital experience
BCBS of Michigan17%
Kaiser Permanente32%
BCBS of Florida13%

How BCBS of Michigan scores for deductibles

BCBS of Michigan tied with BCBS of North Carolina and Humana for sixth in this category. Twenty-seven percent of its members said they were satisfied with the company’s deductibles. But it should be noted that none of the companies in our ranking did particularly well here. Aetna, Cigna and HCSC were in a three-way tie at the top of this category, with 31% of each company’s customers giving it a good grade.

Insurance companyPercent of customers who highly rank the company for low deductibles
BCBS of Michigan27%
BCBS of Florida30%
Blue Shield of California26%

How BCBS of Michigan scores for its provider network

About one-in-four BCBS of Michigan customers said they were satisfied with its provider network. The network refers to the group of doctors and hospitals providing discounted care. Molina Healthcare had the highest score of 31%, but none of the companies we ranked did particularly well here.

Insurance companyPercent of customers who highly rank the company’s provider network
BCBS of Michigan24%
BCBS of Florida23%
BCBS of North Carolina18%

Company health insurance coverage

  • Traditional plans for families and individuals
  • Health insurance through employers
  • Medicare and Medicaid plans
  • Pharmacy plans
  • International plans

Other services offered

  • Dental 
  • Vision
  • Wellness plans that reward members for improving their health

States where BCBS of Michigan offers coverage

Graph
Table
States where BCBS of Michigan offers coverage
Michigan
AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DC DE FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY
Available
Not available

Company background

BCBS of Michigan

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan’s roots date back to 1938 when the Michigan Society for Group Hospitalization and a doctors’ organization, Michigan Medical Service, were formed. The two groups worked together to work on bills to regulate prepaid health care plans and support nonprofit hospitals.

By 1940 the Michigan Society for Group Hospitalization had more than 175,000 members from some 350 employers. That same year the Society and the Medical Service changed their names to Michigan Blue Cross and Michigan Blue Shield.

In 1966 Michigan Blue Cross and Michigan Blue Shield began administering Medicare in the state. It has continued to grow ever since.

The nonprofit company now ranks as the largest health insurer in the state. It serves more than 5 million people. Its provider network includes more than 31,000 specialists.

Resources & Methodology

Sources:

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. “Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.” Accessed February 2024.

Methodology

Insure.com in the fall of 2023 surveyed more than 1,750 insurance consumers (1,433 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 a number of categories, including 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.

In addition, the editors also created star rankings for each company. Respondents were asked to pick their insurer’s top three attributes out of the more than the dozen they were presented – including categories such as customer satisfaction and price/affordability. The number of responses for each of those attributes was totaled and then divided by the number of each company’s customers who responded to that survey question to create the star ranking.

Respondents were also 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 30 or more of a health insurer’s customers to respond to the survey for a company to be included in the ranking.

They then collected AM Best financial stability ratings 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% trustworthiness, 10% for recommending the carrier to another, 10% if a respondent would renew with their current insurer, and 20% if they consider their insurer the best for affordability)
  • AM Best – 25% of total score
  • NCQA – 15% of total score

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.

On company review pages, the editors compared the profiled insurers in various categories against the leaders in that category or against other top insurers that match up well against the profiled company in terms of size and/or coverage area.

author image
Mel Duvall
Contributing Researcher

 
  

Mel Duvall is an award-winning senior business writer and communications professional. Mel also served a three-year term on the Mount Royal University Journalism Committee.

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