The carriers
Four networks, and what each one is genuinely good at
Network is the part people underestimate. A plan with a beautiful deductible is worthless if your cardiologist is out of network, and a plan with a frightening deductible can be excellent if it puts every specialist you need in network at negotiated rates.
These four carriers cover the overwhelming majority of individual and group business in the United States. None of them is universally best. Each has real geographic and structural strengths, and the right answer depends on where you live, who you already see and what you take.
Cigna
Global reach, behavioral health depth, and HSA-friendly design
Cigna is the carrier people reach for when coverage has to work somewhere other than where they live. Understanding where that strength comes from tells you a lot about when it is the right pick.
Read the full profile →Aetna
Retail health integration and a wide spread of plan designs
Aetna is one of the oldest names in American insurance and one of the most changed by the last decade. The CVS acquisition reshaped what the plan actually looks like at ground level.
Read the full profile →Blue Cross Blue Shield
The deepest hospital footprint in most American markets
Blue Cross Blue Shield is not one company. Understanding that is the single most useful thing a shopper can know about it, because it explains both the network depth and the state-to-state inconsistency.
Read the full profile →UnitedHealthcare
Scale, digital infrastructure and employer-side administration
UnitedHealthcare is the largest health insurer in the country by revenue and membership. Scale brings real advantages and real trade-offs, and both are worth understanding before you enroll.
Read the full profile →Why this decision needs an independent broker
An agent appointed with one carrier can only ever recommend that carrier. If you call a carrier directly, you are talking to someone whose entire job is that company’s product shelf. They may be competent, honest and helpful — and still structurally incapable of telling you that the plan down the street fits your family better.
Independent appointments across all four change the order of operations. Instead of fitting your life to a product, the process starts with your providers:
- Your doctors, not the premium. Every provider your household actually uses, by name — primary care, each specialist, the hospital you would want in an emergency, and the pharmacy. That list becomes the filter.
- Your prescriptions. Formularies differ dramatically between carriers. One specialty drug on the wrong tier can cost more over a year than the entire premium difference.
- Geography. Anyone out of state, travelling for work, or away at school? That usually decides between a regional plan and a national one.
- Then price. Only the plans that survived the first three steps are real alternatives to each other.
There is no cost to you either way. Agent compensation is built into carriers’ filed rates, and the same plan does not get cheaper if you buy it without an agent. What changes is whether anyone ran the comparison.
One question worth asking every agent: what alternative did you consider and reject, and why? A real advisor ran more than one option and can tell you exactly why this one won. It is the fastest way to find out which kind of agent you are talking to.
Joshua Jennings
Independent Health Insurance Agent & Broker · Licensed since 2018
Josh works with individuals, families and small employers across Florida, Texas and Pennsylvania. Independent appointments with Cigna, Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield and UnitedHealthcare mean the recommendation follows your doctors, not one carrier’s contract.
Florida license W474699 — class 0215 — Life Including Variable Annuity & Health, issued 03/19/2018. Non-resident licensed in Texas and Pennsylvania. Verify