There are numerous health coverage carriers in the country and still, it is troublesome to see that not everyone are able to fully protect themselves and their family from medical emergencies because of the rising cost of health coverage. Good for those who like the opportunity to be part of group health insurance as they pay little or nothing at all. For most Americans, it is a shoo-in for private health insurance, or nothing at all.

While private health insurance can be more costly than group health insurance, it would be more expensive not to have any coverage at all. To make the search for the perfect medical insurance carriers less difficult, it would be best to look into their backgrounds and what they can offer to the people.

Here are the leading medical insurance carriers as ranked by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners based on market share:

Unitedhealth Group

The UnitedHealth Group includes UnitedHealthcare, one of the various medical insurance carriers that supply millions of customers all over the US. The Group offers healthcare coverage that provide access to choice healthcare not only in the 50 states but also in other international markets. The merger of UnitedHealthcare and Golden Rule Insurance Company in 2003 has led to the provision of health insurance solutions and innovative health insurance options to many families. One of the many criticisms placed against medical insurance carriers is the processing time of claims. This carrier is proud of being able to manage 94 percent of all health insurance claims in ten working days or even fewer. Medical insurance providers like United provide a toll-free customer service line for consumer concerns.

WellPoint

Amid all the other medical insurance carriers, WellPoint has the largest membership of 34 million for its affiliated health plans. The company provides health benefit solutions and products including long-term health coverage, life and disability coverage and behavioral health assistance services along with others. Health coverage is supplied by this firm to over 30 million customers through the Blue Cross and Blue Shield name. It provides various health plans including indemnity, HMO, PPO, hybrid plans for employers, and recipients of Medicaid and Medicare. WellPoint has 37,500 employees as of 2010.

Kaiser Foundation Group

The Kaiser Foundation Group includes Kaiser Permanente which itself is formed of the Kaiser Foundation Health Plans, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and the Permanente Medical Groups. With up to 8.7 million clients all over the District of Columbia and nine states, Kaiser is respected as the largest non-profit health plan in the US. It is recognized for offering an integrated health care delivery model to its members that includes emergency care, well-baby and prenatal care, preventive care, pharmacy services, hospital stays and medical services. It has a network of 32 medical centers, 416 medical offices and 13,729 doctors.

Aetna

Aetna is one of the industry leaders among the many medical insurance carriers in the US. It provides employee benefits, disability coverage, group life, pharmacy and dental insurance. Aetna is backed by 154 years of tradition, having been started in 1850. It has a total of 34,024 employees and covers all 50 states. This company has 16.6 million clients and has a network of 4771 hospitals and over 470,000 doctors and specialists.

HumanaOne

HumanaOne provides inexpensive health coverage and targets fresh college graduates, early retirees, entrepreneurs and those who are not covered by an employer. It aims to make insurance plans more inexpensive to these sectors by providing low premium payments of up to 50 percent. As one of the largest publicly-traded health insurance providers in the country, HumanaOne has a network of over 3,000 hospitals, over 350,000 medical providers and around 50,000 pharmacies all over the United States.

Identifying the leading medical insurance carriers will offer consumers an impression of what to look for while choosing their own medical insurance carriers including the quality of health insurance offered, costs, and the full network of the provider.