Which Insurance Company Denies the Most Claims? What the Data Shows

It's a fair question to ask when your claim is denied or stalled, but the honest answer is that there is no single, official ranking of which insurance company denies the most claims. Insurers don't all publish denial rates, and a "denial" means different things across home, auto, and health lines. What does exist is public data you can use to gauge how an insurer treats its claimants.

Why there's no single ranking of denials

Three things get in the way of a clean ranking.

First, most insurers don't publish their denial rates. Home and auto carriers report data to regulators, but there is no national scoreboard that ranks companies by how often they say no.

Second, "denial" isn't one number. A claim can be denied outright, paid below what the loss actually costs, or stalled for months until the policyholder gives up. These get counted differently from one company and one state to the next.

Third, raw counts punish big companies. A carrier with millions of policies will generate more complaints than a small one simply because it has more customers. That is why the metrics worth reading are measured against a company's market share, not in absolute totals.

Where denial rates are actually public: health plans

The one corner of insurance with hard denial-rate data is health coverage sold through the federal marketplace. Under the Affordable Care Act, insurers on HealthCare.gov have to report how many claims they receive and how many they deny, and KFF publishes the results each year.

The numbers are higher than most people expect. KFF found that marketplace insurers denied about 19% of in-network claims in 2024, roughly one in five, which is in line with the 20% in-network denial rate it reported for 2023. The spread between companies is wide. In 2024, individual insurer denial rates ran from about 3% to 36%, so the carrier matters a great deal.

A few patterns stand out in this data:

• Some large carriers deny well above average. In the 2023 figures, several high-volume insurers landed near or above the 30% mark, including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama at 35% across its 12 plans in the state and UnitedHealth Group at 33% across 274 plans in 20 states.
• Where you live changes the odds. The average in-network denial rate ranged from 6% in South Dakota to 34% in Alabama in 2023.
• Most denials are never challenged. Consumers appealed fewer than 1% of denied in-network claims in 2024, and when they did appeal, insurers still upheld about two-thirds of the denials.
• The stated reasons are vague. The single most common denial reason in 2024 was simply "other," and only about 5% of denials cited a lack of medical necessity.

That last point is the real lesson hiding in the health data. A denial is often a starting position, not a final verdict, and very few people push back on it.

For home and auto, read the complaint data instead

Property and auto carriers don't post denial rates, so the closest signal is the NAIC complaint index. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners scores each company against companies of similar size. A score of 1.0 is the national median, meaning the company's share of complaints matches its share of the market. A score above 1.0 means more complaints than expected, and below 1.0 means fewer. An index of 2.0, for example, means the insurer drew twice the complaints its market share would predict.

The index is free to look up on the NAIC Consumer Information Source, and it breaks complaints down by type, so you can see how many relate to claim handling specifically rather than billing or sales.

Two other sources fill in the picture. Your state Department of Insurance usually publishes its own complaint and claim-disposition data, which tends to be more local and detailed than the national figure. Studies like J.D. Power's claims-satisfaction rankings and AM Best financial-strength ratings add context too, though they measure satisfaction and solvency rather than denials.

How to check your own insurer

1. Look up the company's NAIC complaint index, and note the share of complaints tied to claim handling.
2. Check your state Department of Insurance complaint data.
3. Search for recent regulatory actions or market-conduct exams against the insurer.

Treat all of this as signals rather than proof. One bad year, a recent merger, or sheer size can skew the picture for any single company.

Why the ranking matters less than your claim

Even if you could name the worst insurer in the country, it wouldn't decide your case. Your claim turns on your policy language and the evidence behind your loss, not on the company's reputation. A denied or underpaid claim can often be challenged no matter who issued the policy, and the health data above shows how rarely people bother to try.

If your claim was denied, our guide on how to handle a denied insurance claim walks through the first steps. Clayem pairs AI policy analysis with a licensed public adjuster to push back on denials and low offers on property claims, with no upfront cost. You only pay if we recover more than the insurer first offered. Start your claim and a licensed adjuster will review it.

This article is for general information only. Clayem is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. For legal questions about a denied claim or a dispute with your insurer, consult a licensed attorney in your state.