Horizon, No. 3 on Insure.com’s Best Health Insurance Companies list, scored well in a number of categories in our health insurance customer survey, including customer satisfaction and trustworthiness. It earned 4.12 stars out of 5.
Elizabeth Rivelli is an insurance expert and freelance writer specializing in insurance and personal finance. Her work has been featured in major outlets like Investopedia, CNET and Bankrate, where she helps readers make confident decisions about car insurance, coverage options and financial planning.
John McCormick is an insurance expert and the editorial director for QuinStreet's insurance sites -- CarInsurance.com, Insurance.com and Insure.com. Before joining QuinStreet, he was a deputy editor at The Wall Street Journal and was an editor and reporter at several media outlets where he covered insurance, personal finance and technology.
Why you can trust Insure.com
Quality Verified
At Insure.com, we are committed to providing the timely, accurate and expert information consumers need to make smart insurance decisions. All our content is written and reviewed by industry professionals and insurance experts. Our team carefully vets our rate data to ensure we only provide reliable and up-to-date insurance pricing. We follow the highest editorial standards. Our content is based solely on objective research and data gathering. We maintain strict editorial independence to ensure unbiased coverage of the insurance industry.
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey has one of the highest customer satisfaction scores in our study. More than 80% of our insurance consumer survey respondents said they were satisfied with the company, and 97% said they would recommend Horizon BCBS of New Jersey to other insurance shoppers. Plus, 97% of customers said they planned to renew their health insurance plan for another year.
Horizon is No. 3 on Insure.com’s Best Health Insurance Companies list. It earned 4.12 stars out of 5.
In addition to its excellent customer satisfaction ratings, Horizon also stands out for its policy offerings. Eighty-four percent of respondents in our study said they were happy with the policies that the company offers. Only BCBS of Michigan and Kaiser Permanente had higher scores in this category.
When it comes to affordability, Horizon scored well. It had a 4.03 out of 5 stars for price/affordability – one of the highest ratings in our study.
Horizon’s health insurance plans also have good ratings from the National Committee for Quality Assurance, which rates plans based on factors like quality of care and patient experience. The NCQA rated the company’s health plans 3.67 stars out of 5, which is slightly higher than the average rating of all insurers in our study.
Below is Insure.com’s review of the company. It’s based on third-party metrics and an in-depth survey of insurance customers. Find the full methodology here, including an explanation of our survey scores.
Horizon scores well in terms of pricing. The company’s price/affordability score is 4.03 out of 5, which is better than many other insurers we studied. It ranked fifth for affordability out of all the companies in our ranking.
Below is a look at how Horizon’s rates in New Jersey compare with Oscar Health and UnitedHealthcare. These are 2024 healthcare exchange rates for a single, 40-year-old male in excellent health with an annual income of $70,000.
Horizon has some of the best overall customer satisfaction scores. According to our study, 81% of customers are satisfied with the company, which earned 4.13 out of 5 stars in this category. Kaiser Permanente led this category with 4.45 stars.
The company also has an excellent customer satisfaction rating from J.D. Power in the 2023 U.S. Commercial Member Health Plan Study. Horizon ranked second behind Cigna in New Jersey. The company received a score of 721 (out of 1,000), which is higher than the industry average of 719.
Horizon is one of our top-rated health insurance companies for policy offerings. In our study, 84% of respondents said they were satisfied with the policies offered by the company. BCBS of Michigan led this category
Almost all Horizon’s members would recommend the company to others. We found that 97% of survey respondents said they would suggest Horizon to other people shopping for health insurance – tying it with Molina for second place in this category. BCBS of Michigan topped this category, with all BCBS of Michigan customers responding to our survey saying they would tell others about the company.
Horizon is one of the most trustworthy health insurance providers. According to our survey results, 81% of people said they trust it. Only Kaiser Permanente and Highmark had better scores for trustworthiness.
Horizon has one of the highest renewal ratings in our study. An impressive 97% of members say they plan to renew their health insurance policy for another year. Highmark and BCBS of Michigan tied at the top of this category.
Just 19% of survey respondents were satisfied with Horizon’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.
Our data shows that Horizon BCBS of New Jersey is not one of the best companies for low deductibles. Only 16% of members in our study 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 here.
About one-in-four Horizon customers said they were satisfied with its provider network, which is about average compared to other insurers we reviewed. The network refers to the group of doctors and hospitals that provide discounted care to members. Molina Healthcare had the highest score of 31%, but none of the companies we ranked did particularly well here.
Horizon BCBS of New Jersey has been selling health insurance plans to New Jersey residents since 1936. The company currently insures more than 3.8 million people in the Garden State. Horizon BCBS of New Jersey has more customers than any other health insurance company in New Jersey.
Sources:
J.D. Power. “Commercial Health Plan Member Satisfaction Declines in Key Areas.” J.D. Power Finds.” Accessed February 2024.
NAIC. ‘Horizon Ins Co National Complaint Index Report.” Accessed February 2024.
Horizon Blue. “Company Information.” Accessed February 2024.
Horizon Blue. “Homepage.” Accessed February 2024.
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:
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.