Cigna Insurance Review & Complaints: Health & Life Insurance (2023)

A big name in health insurance, Cigna Insurance Company traces its roots back to two venerable insurance companies that came together in the 1980s. Cigna is a health insurance provider of health insurance company that offers individual and group health insurance plans as well as a range of supplemental products including Medicare, dental, and lump sum terminal illness plan types.

How is Cigna Health Insurance rated? Check out our Cigna Health Insurance review, updated for 2020.

Though Cigna doesn’t offer car insurance, don’t let that stop you from getting the best rates. Get quotes from multiple insurers today. Enter your ZIP code to get started with free quotes.

Who is Cigna Insurance?

How good is Cigna’s health insurance?

Cigna’s reputation has an impressive history; it was created in 1982 by the merger of two very old insurance companies. The first, Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, was founded in 1865.

The second, INA Corporation, is the parent company of the Insurance Company of North America, formed in 1792 and the nation’s first stock company. That takes Cigna’s history back more than 200 years.

Initially a big player in the property & casualty market, Cigna sold off a lot of worldwide assets in the 1990s, including its life insurance business, to focus on healthcare. The 2011 acquisition of HealthSpring, Inc. gave Cigna a big step into the Medicare market.

The video below goes over what type of health care and life insurance options Cigna offers its policyholders today.

In 2015, Anthem, Inc. made a deal to acquire Cigna, but the merger was shot down in early 2017 after a protracted antitrust suit. The merger would have created a true health insurance giant.

For 2017, Cigna was ranked at number 70 on the Fortune 500 list. The health insurance company employs about 40,000 people and serves 15.2 million medical customers around the world. They provide Cigna Medicare Advantage plans in 17 states and Supplemental plans in all 50; our review of Cigna’s Medicare plans can be found here.

Cigna’s head office is located in Bloomfield, Connecticut. They have branch offices located in multiple locations across the country.

What insurance products are offered by Cigna?

Cigna offers a variety of individual and group health insurance plans that differ from state to state. The website lists nine states in which individual plans are offered but provides employer-sponsored group plans across a larger region. Currently, Cigna offers individual plans in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.

Beyond major medical, they also have an array of supplemental health plans available.

Does the company offer individual health plans?

For the purpose of this review, we chose to examine the plans offered in Illinois as a sample; again, these plans may differ from state to state. Plans are available at the Bronze, Silver, and Gold levels, with cost-sharing reduction options for those who qualify through the marketplace.

These plans all utilize the Connect network and none of them offer out-of-network coverage. Cigna does offer PPO plans elsewhere.

What are Cigna’s Bronze coverage plans?

There are two Cigna Bronze tier plans offered by Cigna, each with a cost-sharing plan option for those who meet income requirements.

The Cigna Connect 6650 has a $6,650 individual deductible that is doubled for a family. The plan has a $25 copay for primary care office visits, and a 50 percent coinsurance for specialist visits, which kicks in after the deductible is met. Copays for prescription drugs start at $10 with this plan.

The Cigna Connect 7150 plan has a higher $7,150 individual deductible, doubled for a family. Most services are subject to the deductible, including primary care visits for illness or injury. After the deductible is met, these are covered at 50 percent.

What is included in Silver Plans?

There are two Silver plans available, each of which has multiple levels of cost-sharing options as well as American Indian specific plans.

Applicants must qualify for these options through the marketplace.

The Cigna Connect 4000 has deductibles of $4,000 individual and $8,000 family. Primary care office visits are covered with a $25 copay before the deductible is met, but specialist visits are not; they are covered with a 30 percent coinsurance only once the deductible has been met. Prescription drugs are not subject to the deductible and start at $8 for Tier 1.

With a slightly lower deductible, the Cigna Connect 3400 plan covers primary care visits with a $15 copay before the $3,400 individual/$6,800 family deductible is met. Specialists, however, are subject to the deductible and covered with 30 percent coinsurance thereafter. Like the Connect 4000 Silver plan, prescriptions start at an $8 copay and are not subject to the deductible.

What is the Gold Plan?

There is only one plan at the Gold level, and it also has a few cost-sharing reduction options. This plan is the Cigna Connect 1400, which has a $1,400 individual deductible and a $2,800 family deductible.

While both primary care visits and specialist visits are covered before the deductible is met at $15 and $50 copays respectively many other services are still subject to the deductible and covered with a 20 percent coinsurance thereafter.

The deductible on this plan is relatively low, but a Cigna Gold plan typically has better types of coverage than what we see here. Prescriptions on the Gold plan have the same copay amounts as the Silver plans again, surprising.

What kind of supplemental plans are offered?

Cigna offers a range of different supplemental plans to fill the gaps left by major medical plans.

Cigna Dental PPO plans are available at several levels, from basic plans to cover preventative services, to more comprehensive options including orthodontic health care coverage.

Other supplemental health plans include:

• Accident Expense
• Lump-Sum Cancer
• Lump-Sum Heart Attack and Stroke

They also offer cancer treatment specific plans.

How are Cigna’s life insurance plans?

Although Cigna Health and Life Insurance Company of North America has mainly divested itself of the life insurance market, it does still offer a whole life insurance policy.

This permanent coverage is available with the option of a level benefit or a modified benefit amount. It’s intended as a final expense plan, with issue ages between 50-85. Death benefit plans amounts range from $2,000 to $25,000.

This table will give you an idea of the average final expense plan estimate costs for men and women between the ages of 50-85.

The whole life program is available in most states.

How much are Cigna insurance rates?

Is Cigna good health insurance? This review was written outside of open enrollment, and as a result, Cigna was not offering rate quotes on its website. The site instead directs visitors to the marketplace website to compare quotes; here those who qualify for special enrollment can compare rates from multiple companies and not just Cigna.

That website required a series of qualification steps, and as a result, we were unable to obtain quotes.

It is unusual for a company as big as Cigna to make it difficult for visitors to get a quote, even outside of open enrollment. Since any number of reasons may qualify a person for special enrollment, quoting should be readily available at all times. This is the first major health insurer we have encountered this issue with; Cigna insurance quotes are simply not available all year unless you qualify for enrollment.

How are insurance claims processed?

Cigna does not make any claims information readily available on its website, a practice that is common for health insurance companies. Most service claims are handled internally.

Customers can view claims status by creating a user ID and logging into MyCigna to view claims and find quality healthcare physicians within your network benefits. During the COVID-19 pandemic, you can also access telehealth options and of course access your documents.

What are Cigna Insurance’s financial strength ratings and consumer reviews?

Is Cigna insurance any good? Cigna has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) which rates a variety of providers, with 426 total complaints on file in the past three years. While you may have heard people call Cigna HealthCare the worst insurance ever, it’s worth noting that 165 of those complaints were closed in the past 12 months. For such a huge company, that’s not a particularly high complaint volume.

Since Cigna HealthCare serves a number of states under a variety of company names, there is more than one report on this company from the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

An overview of most of the states Cigna Corporation serves shows an average rating of 2.5-3.5, with an even three in most states. Only in Maryland did the company earn a four rating.

Consumer Affairs has 644 reviews of Cigna HealthCare, most of which are negative. Most of the complaints against Cigna HealthCare insurance cite denied claims and poor customer service. Again, the complaint volume is not high for a huge company, and although the comments are similar in nature, they are generally the same complaints we see with most health insurance companies.

Cigna has been at the center of a few controversies, most notably a 2007 case where the company denied a liver transplant to a patient who died while the case was being appealed.

What’s the bottom line on Cigna Insurance?

Cigna’s appeal is most likely going to depend on where the customer lives and what plans are available; it appears that a large portion of the company‘s business comes via employer group benefits rather than through health insurance marketplaces purchases. This means many customers are with Cigna HealthCare because it’s what their employer offers, and may not have selected that company in the open market.

Cigna’s complaint volume and ratings seem to put them in the middle of the pack for health insurers average. Without monthly premiums for comparison, we’re unable to form a solid conclusion on Cigna HealthCare

It may be hard to find a solid conclusion on Cigna Health Insurance, but we can still try to help you save on your car insurance policy. Enter your ZIP code to get FREE quotes from multiple providers.