Horizon health insurance review and ratings 2024

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.

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Our Take

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 BCBS of New Jersey
Horizon BCBS of New Jersey Ratings
Overall Rating: 4.1
Price/Affordability: 4.0
NCQA: 3.67
Customer Satisfaction: 4.1
AM Best Rating: NR

Pros and Cons

Pros:
  • Good customer satisfaction
  • Excellent score for policy offerings
  • High recommendation score
Cons:
  • Wasn’t rated highly for its digital experience
  • Poor deductible score compared to competitors

How much does Horizon insurance cost?

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.

Insurance companyPrice/affordability stars 
Horizon 4.03
Highmark4.00
UnitedHealthcare3.95

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.

Insurance companyRate/MonthPlan
Horizon BCBS$461.24Omnia Silver – EPO
Oscar Health$481.32Silver Simple PCP Saver – EPO
UnitedHealthcare$490.16UHC Silver Advantage – EPO

How Horizon scores for customer satisfaction

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.

Insurance companyCustomer satisfaction starsJ.D. Power overall satisfaction score (out of 1,000) 
Horizon 4.13721
Aetna3.98718
Cigna3.95727

How Horizon scores for policy offerings

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

Insurance companyPercent of customers who score their health insurance company highly for policy offerings
Horizon 84%
Blue Shield of Michigan88%
Blue Shield of California69%

Would customers recommend Horizon to others?

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.

Insurance companyPercent of customers who would recommend their health insurance company to others
Horizon 97%
BCBS of Michigan 100%
Blue Shield of California94%

How trustworthy is Horizon?

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.

Insurance companyPercent of customers who say they trust their health insurance company
Horizon 81%
Kaiser Permanente86%
Highmark83%

Do current customers plan to renew?

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.

Insurance companyPercent of customers who plan to renew with their health insurance company
Horizon 97%
BCBS of Michigan 98%
Highmark98%

How Horizon scores for digital experience

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.

Insurance company Percent of customers who highly rank the company’s digital experience
Horizon 19%
Kaiser Permanente 32%
Highmark 15%

How Horizon scores for deductibles

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.

Insurance company Percent of customers who highly rank the company for low deductibles
Horizon 16%
BCBS of Florida 30%
Highmark 17%

How Horizon scores for its provider network

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.

Insurance company Percent of customers who highly rank the company’s provider network
Horizon 23%
Molina 31%
BCBS of Florida 23%

Horizon health insurance coverage options

  • Individual and family health insurance plans
  • Medicaid Managed Care
  • Medicare

Other Horizon services

  • Dental insurance
  • Travel insurance
  • Vision insurance
  • Horizon Pharmacy program

States where Horizon BCBS of New Jersey offers coverage

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Table
States where Horizon BCBS of New Jersey offers coverage
New Jersey
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

Horizon BCBS of New Jersey

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.

Resources and Methodology

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.

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.

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Elizabeth Rivelli
Contributing Researcher

 
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Elizabeth Rivelli is a freelance writer who covers various insurance topics. Her areas of expertise are life insurance, car insurance, property insurance and health insurance. Elizabeth’s byline has appeared in dozens of online publications, including Investopedia, CNET and Bankrate. She has also written for several insurance carriers.

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