Best Insurance Companies for Mental Health of 2024

If you’re suffering from specific health issues, consider an insurer that provides a health management plan for your condition. Out of the providers in our roundup, Oscar has the largest selection of health management programs, with coverage for conditions like depression, asthma, and diabetes.

Oscar also stands out for its affordability for plans with depression management. In our review of the best affordable health insurance companies, Oscar was named “best overall.” While it doesn’t offer the lowest-premium plan in the areas we reviewed, its premiums, on average, are lower than the competition. This means you have more selection at a more affordable price point.

Oscar offers telehealth services to all plan members, with $0 urgent care and primary care with most plans. Oscar also has a highly rated mobile app, where you can make appointments, refill prescriptions, view your ID cards, and more. You can even earn Amazon gift cards for tracking your daily steps in the app.

Oscar’s plans are only available in 22 states, and plans are rated two out of five stars by healthcare.gov. The company’s average plan rating with the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) is 2.75 out of 5 stars, which is the lowest rating out of the providers in our list.

In J.D. Power’s 2022 Commercial Member Health Plan Study, Kaiser Permanente had the highest overall customer satisfaction rating in five regions. It also won “best for customer satisfaction” in our reviews of the best health insurance companies for college students and the best health insurance companies for small businesses.

Kaiser’s average NCQA plan rating is 4.27 out of 5, which is the highest average rating out of all the providers we reviewed, and supports Kaiser’s commitment to plan quality and member satisfaction.

Kaiser’s health plans provide standard coverage for mental health services and free access to mobile apps like Calm, Ginger, and myStrength. Telehealth is covered at no extra cost with most plans.

However, Kaiser plans are only available in eight states plus Washington D.C., and PPOs are unavailable, which means you need to stay strictly in-network for care.

Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) members can get coverage outside their home service area while traveling domestically or internationally with the BlueCard program. The company’s network is larger than any other insurer, with 1.7 million doctors and hospitals nationwide.

Plan members get access to telehealth for a variety of services, including mental health care. BCBS also operates the Blue365 program, which provides discounts on things like travel, fitness trackers, hearing aids, vision exams, supplements, and healthy foods.

BCBS has excellent customer satisfaction ratings by J.D. Power, earning the top spot in 9 regions. And healthcare.gov gives its plans four stars. These are a couple of reasons it shows up repeatedly in our “best of” lists, earning the title of “best overall” in our reviews of the best health insurance companies, the best catastrophic health insurance companies, and the best health insurance for small businesses.

However, BCBS premiums aren’t the lowest. The lowest monthly premium for a BCBS plan with depression management is $359.82 in Miami-Dade County, Florida (almost $30 more expensive than Oscar’s cheapest comparable plan). It’s also about $30 more for the least expensive plan in El Paso County, Texas.

Aetna plan members can access low-cost or free same-day healthcare services at CVS MinuteClinics, including mental health screenings and counseling. This can be a great alternative to urgent care and ER visits if you live near a CVS and need same-day care for a minor illness or injury. Aetna also offers telemedicine for primary care and behavioral health appointments, as well as free tools like MindCheck®.

If affordability is crucial to you, every Aetna plan purchased on the federal Marketplace is eligible to be covered in full by tax credits, which means your premium could be reduced to $0 if you qualify. But if you don’t qualify for the premium tax credit, we found Aetna’s plan costs to be about average, overall. But the company has made cheaper plans available in 2023 in some areas. For example, in El Paso County, Texas, the lowest premium bronze plan was $315.16 per month in 2022. However, Aetna offers a 2023 bronze plan with better benefits in the same area for $286.40 per month. We hope Aetna continues the trend in other areas as well!