About one in eight Americans under 65 buy health insurance on a marketplace or directly from an insurance company. When you’re buying your own coverage, you might have dozens or even hundreds of plan options.
NerdWallet’s editorial team built our own data-driven marketplace health insurance rating system based on costs, claims denial rates, medical management programs, dental care, complaints, government quality data and more. We crunched the numbers on a sample of over 2,300 marketplace insurance plans across 15 states to find the best and most affordable options.
NerdWallet’s picks for the best marketplace health insurance companies:
Best for low premiums: Oscar Insurance Company
Best for dental coverage: Ambetter Health
Best for member experience: Blue Cross Blue Shield
Compare the best health insurance companies
Company name | NerdWallet's pick | Learn more | |
|---|---|---|---|
|  Best for low premiums | partnered with Stride Health | Call a consumer advocate at Stride Health. 📞 (415) 930-9110 (Mon–Fri: 8am-4pm PST) |
| Best for dental coverage | partnered with Stride Health | Call a consumer advocate at Stride Health. 📞 (415) 930-9110 (Mon–Fri: 8am-4pm PST) |
| Best member experience | partnered with Stride Health | Call a consumer advocate at Stride Health. 📞 (415) 930-9110 (Mon–Fri: 8am-4pm PST) |
Best for low premiums
Oscar companies often have the lowest Silver plan premiums on the market, on average. Their prices for other metal levels are often among the lowest, too. And Oscar customers file relatively few complaints about their plans.
Oscar denies more in-network claims than average, however, and its government quality ratings aren’t always the best. Competitors might offer some lower out-of-pocket costs, too, so it’s worth comparing copays and coinsurance in addition to premiums.
Call a consumer advocate at Stride Health. 📞 (415) 930-9110 (Mon–Fri: 8am-4pm PST)
Why it stands out: If low premiums are your primary goal, Oscar can be hard to beat. Its premiums are often the lowest on the market, on average.
Pros
- Cheap Silver plan premiums.
- Low prices often extend to other metal tiers, too.
- Good complaint rates.
Cons
- Denies more in-network claims than competitors.
- Government quality ratings could be better.
- Lower premiums might come with higher out-of-pocket costs.
Best for dental coverage: Ambetter Health
Best for dental coverage
Ambetter often offers adult dental coverage in about half of its plans in the states we reviewed. Most competitors rarely offer dental benefits — if at all.
Ambetter's premiums and complaint rates are often competitive, even if not the absolute lowest. Deductibles can be on the higher side, however, and competitors might offer more affordable out-of-pocket costs for brand-name drugs.
Texas Best and most affordable
South Carolina Best for dental coverage
North Carolina Best for HMO plans
Call a consumer advocate at Stride Health. 📞 (415) 930-9110 (Mon–Fri: 8am-4pm PST)
Why it stands out: Adult dental coverage can be rare from most insurance companies, but Ambetter includes dental benefits in about half of its plans.
Pros
- Many plans include dental options.
- Competitive premiums.
- Few customer complaints.
Cons
- Deductibles can be high.
- Brand-name drugs might be pricey.
Best for member experience: Blue Cross Blue Shield
Best for member experience
Blue Cross Blue Shield companies often excel on measures that contribute to members’ experience using their plans. They deny fewer in-network claims than average, have very low complaint rates, and often get some of the highest government quality ratings.
BCBS companies generally don’t have the cheapest premiums, however, and competitors might cover more prescription drugs and/or services before you meet your deductible. And because there are many different BCBS companies, your experience might depend on which one serves your location.
South Carolina Best and most affordable
Michigan Best for out-of-network options
Call a consumer advocate at Stride Health. 📞 (415) 930-9110 (Mon–Fri: 8am-4pm PST)
Why it stands out: BCBS plans often deny relatively few claims, get few customer complaints and earn good government quality ratings. That combination suggests their member experience is generally a good one.
Pros
- Denies fewer in-network claims than competitors.
- Very few customer complaints.
- Strong government quality ratings, often.
Cons
- Premiums can be pricey.
- Competitors might have more benefits that kick in right away, rather than after you meet your deductible.
- There are 33 BCBS companies, so your experience might vary.
How we choose the best health insurance companies
👋 I’m Alex Rosenberg, a lead writer and content strategist covering health insurance. I did the research for this page to find the best health insurance options on the marketplace. I gathered and analyzed data across four major categories:
- 💰 Cost
Our preferred plans are those with lower costs, such as premiums, deductibles, copays, coinsurance and out-of-pocket maximums.
We evaluate plans’ costs using marketplace health plan datasets. These enormous spreadsheets include as many as 149 discrete data points for over 100,000 plan offerings in 31 states that use the federal marketplace (other states use their own separate marketplaces).
It’s not feasible to evaluate every kind of cost in every scenario, so we use these as a sample:
Premiums
Premiums are our most important metric when evaluating plans. We compare each plan’s unsubsidized premium for a 30-year-old individual as a level playing field for comparison. We compare plans based on how cheap they are relative to other plans of the same type and metal — Silver HMOs vs. other Silver HMOs, for example.
Deductibles
The amount you need to pay out of pocket before your plan starts to pay for its share of covered benefits. The lower the deductible, the better.
Out-of-pocket costs
We analyze each plan’s copays, coinsurance and deductibles for primary care visits, specialist appointments, emergency care and several tiers of prescription drugs.
- 🩺 Coverage
We prefer plans that make covered medical care and prescription drugs more easily accessible.
We evaluate plans’ coverage using the same marketplace health plan datasets that we use to analyze costs along with additional data from government-provided “public use files.”
All marketplace plans have to cover the same essential health benefits, but some plans’ coverage is more usable than others. We evaluate them on how coverage works.
Pre-deductible benefits
We give a strong preference to plans that cover certain benefits before (and also after) you’ve met the deductible. Plans' coverage is less usable when they don’t start to cover things like doctor’s office visits or prescription drugs until you’ve paid the full deductible.
Dental coverage
We prefer plans that cover adult dental care over plans that don’t. (Unlike children’s dental care, adult dental care isn’t considered an essential health benefit, so plans may or may not cover it.)
- 📞 Customer experience
The best plans have fewer denials, lower complaint rates and stronger customer satisfaction surveys.
We use three different data sources to evaluate customer experience:
Customer complaints
We collect and analyze customer complaint data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. For each company, we calculate a multi-year average complaint rate.
NerdWallet conducts its data analysis and reaches conclusions independently and without the endorsement of the NAIC.
Denials
Based on claims data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, we evaluate companies based on how often they deny in-network claims. The fewer denials, the better.
Satisfaction scores
We evaluate plans based on how well or poorly they score on government surveys evaluating customer satisfaction.
- 📈 Quality
Companies medical management programs and rankings on government ratings of medical quality give us a window into their plans' quality.
We use two sources to evaluate plans’ quality of care:
Government ratings
Marketplace plans get star ratings from the government based on how well they manage members’ health care, monitor conditions and provide certain medical services. We prefer plans with higher ratings, but we don't penalize plans that aren't yet rated.
Medical management programs
Some plans offer medical management programs to help members with certain conditions, such as asthma, diabetes, depression, pregnancy and pain management. We prefer plans that offer a wide range of programs.
How to pick a marketplace health insurance plan
There can be a lot of moving parts when shopping for health insurance coverage. Here are a few questions to help you think through your needs and options:
How much are the plan’s costs? Do you understand what the plan’s premium, deductibles, copays and/or coinsurance will be? Can you afford them?
Are you eligible for subsidies? Whether applying yourself or with an agent/broker, be sure to enter accurate information to check whether you’re eligible for subsidies through the marketplace.
Is your doctor in-network? If you have a preferred doctor (or doctors) or hospital, make sure they participate in the plan’s network.
Are your prescriptions covered? If you’re on medication, understand how the plan covers it. What tier are your prescription drugs on, and are there any coverage rules that apply to them?
Is there dental coverage? Does the plan offer routine coverage for vision, dental and hearing needs?
If you have questions or need help navigating the marketplace, you can get help from a trained assister or an agent/broker at HealthCare.gov.
Best marketplace plans by state
We analyzed the best health insurance plans in 15 states.
Click on a green-shaded state to see the best marketplace plans available there.
Article sources
NerdWallet writers are subject matter authorities who use primary, trustworthy sources to inform their work, including peer-reviewed studies, government websites, academic research and interviews with industry experts. All content is fact-checked for accuracy, timeliness and relevance. You can learn more about NerdWallet's high standards for journalism by reading our editorial guidelines.
- 1.Department of Health & Human Services. Health Plan Datasets: Individuals & Families. Accessed Dec 3, 2025.
- 2.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Plan Attributes PUF. Accessed Dec 3, 2025.
- 3.Department of Health & Human Services. Health benefits & coverage. Accessed Dec 3, 2025.
- 4.National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Results by Complaint Index. Accessed Dec 3, 2025.
- 5.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Transparency in Coverage PUF. Accessed Dec 3, 2025.
- 6.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Quality PUF. Accessed Dec 3, 2025.
- 7.Department of Health & Human Services. Quality Ratings of Health Plans. Accessed Dec 3, 2025.
- 8.Department of Health & Human Services. Health Benefits & Coverage. Accessed Dec 3, 2025.
Marketplace health insurance ratings methodology
NerdWallet evaluates marketplace health insurance plans based on marketplace data about plans’ premiums, out-of-pocket costs and benefits, prescription drug coverage, dental coverage, government quality rating data, complaint data, records about how plans approve and deny claims and more.
We evaluate individual plans and then aggregate scores to the company level. When a plan is missing data for a certain metric, we exclude it from calculations. For example, the federal government calculates official star ratings for marketplace health insurance plans, but many plans are unrated, and others have incomplete ratings. NerdWallet’s analysis incorporates government quality ratings when they’re available, but doesn’t penalize plans that are unrated.
These ratings are a guide, but we encourage you to shop around and compare several insurance quotes to find the best coverage and rate for you. NerdWallet does not receive compensation for any reviews. Read our editorial guidelines for more information.
Insurer complaints methodology
We examined complaints received by state insurance regulators and reported to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. To assess how insurers compare to one another, the NAIC calculates a complaint index each year for each subsidiary, measuring its share of total complaints relative to its size, or share of total premiums in the industry.
To evaluate a company’s complaint history, we calculated a similar index for each insurance company, weighted by market shares of each subsidiary. We score companies based on this index of how many complaints the company receives relative to its market share.
NerdWallet conducts its data analysis and reaches conclusions independently and without the endorsement of the NAIC.
