Insurance expert Mel Duvall is an award-winning business journalist with a background in covering insurance, banking and personal finance. His work has appeared in leading publications such as The Financial Post, American Banker and Baseline Magazine.
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.
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Molina Healthcare offers plans under Medicaid and Medicare and through the state health insurance marketplace.
It’s not available in every state, but the customers who get their insurance through Molina give it high marks for affordability, policy offerings and customer satisfaction. The vast majority of customers we surveyed said they would recommend the company to others.
Overall, Molina ranked No. 9 in Insure.com’s list of the Best Health Insurance Companies for 2025 with a rating of 3.60 out of 5 stars.
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.
AM Best's Financial Strength Rating is an independent opinion of an insurer's financial strength and ability to meet its ongoing insurance policy and contract obligations.
The company, which was founded to provide low-income people with affordable healthcare, scored especially well here. It topped the price and affordability category with 4.54 stars out of 5.
Molina’s has an excellent affordability rating, but it may not have the lowest premiums for every plan in every location. Below is a look at how Molina’s rates in New Mexico compare with those of UnitedHealthcare and HCSC for a similar HMO plan. These are 2025 healthcare exchange rates for a single, 40-year-old male in excellent health with an annual income of $70,000.
Molina received the highest score for customer satisfaction among the top insurers in our survey. Molina wasn’t rated in any region in J.D. Power’s latest U.S. Commercial Member Health Plan Study, but here’s how it stacks up against other companies that ranked well for customer satisfaction.
Molina’s policy offerings are limited to Medicaid, Medicare or other state-sponsored plans, but did very well in this category with 92% of its customers saying they were happy with Molina’s selection. Molina led this category.
Yes, most customers would recommend Molina to others. However, it didn’t have the highest rating in this category. Highmark had the best recommendation rating among the nine insurers we ranked.
Molina has earned customers’ trust. In our survey, 78% of respondents said they trust the company. UnitedHealthcare led this category.
The vast majority said yes. Customers seem to recognize they get good value for their money, with 89% (more specifically, 89.2%) saying they would renew with Molina. It just beat out UnitedHealthcare – 88.7% of its customers said they would renew.
Molina has the best digital experience among the insurance companies in our study. This category looked at the company’s website and mobile apps.
Not only did Molina win the affordability category, it also took the top spot for low deductibles. Choosing a plan with a low deductible can help you manage your health insurance costs.
Molina didn’t fare well in this category. Of the customers we surveyed, 76% were satisfied with the company’s network – a group of doctors, specialists and hospitals that provide services to insured members at a lower cost than providers outside the network. A strong provider network can be a key consideration when shopping for a health plan. Elevance was the leader in this category, followed by Aetna.
The company was founded in 1980 by C. David Molina, an emergency room doctor in Long Beach, California. Molina grew alarmed by a steady stream of patients to his emergency room for common illnesses that could have been treated in primary care centers. The patients were showing up in emergency rooms because they were being turned away from doctors who wouldn’t accept the state’s Medi-Cal health insurance.
He established a primary care clinic in Long Beach to treat low-income patients. There was a clear void to fill, and by the end of the decade, Molina became the state’s largest primary care management provider for Medi-Cal patients. Molina continued to grow and expand to other states, sticking to its roots of offering Medicare, Medicaid and other government-sponsored plans.
Molina passed away in 1996, but the company and the concept continue to live on. Today, Molina has 5.1 million members and operates in more than 20 states.
Sources:
Molina healthcare “Molina corporate information.” Accessed March 2025.
John Hopkins University “Chair in Medicine profile” Accessed March 2025.
Insure.com in the fall of 2024 surveyed more than 1,750 insurance consumers (almost 1,500 of which had health insurance). The survey was conducted by online market research company Slice MR.
Respondents were asked to name their health insurer and then grade it in a number of categories, including:
The percentage of respondents who said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their insurer is presented in the results.
We then asked respondents to provide a yes or no response to indicate their agreement with the following statements:
The percentage of respondents who said yes 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.
We then collected data from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), which evaluates and rates health plans, and National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ complaint data, which ranks a company by the number of customer complaints it receives. The Insure.com team identified the NAIC codes of each underwriting company for each carrier and calculated a weighted average complaint index, weighted by the annual written premium. The associated NAIC complaint index score was used in the calculations.
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 life insurers, we took the following and gave each a weight.
Each insurer was awarded between half a star and 5 stars. No company in the ranking received less than half a star in any category, and 5 stars was the most any insurer could receive.