Unhappy with your overall insurance coverage? So are manyconsumers, according to a new report by the American Customer Satisfaction Index(ACSI), released on Nov. 18.

The ACSIFinance and Insurance Report 2014 covers customer satisfaction withbanks, health insurance, property and casualty insurance, lifeinsurance, credit unions and online brokerages.

Satisfaction scores for both P&C and life insurance slippedthis year. P&C dropped by 2.5% to 79, while life insurancedropped 3.6% to 80. Customer satisfaction with their auto insurancerated a score of 78, but homeowners only rated a 72. The mostsatisfied customers are those with multiple policies from the sameinsurer, the report notes, with a score of 80.

ACSI is a national economic indicator of customer evaluations ofthe quality of products and services available to householdconsumers in the United States. The results for the insurance andfinance industries are released annually, with all measuresreported on a scale of 0 to 100.

P&C insurers rank highly in overall customer service: Thereport found that agents and other staff are courteous and helpfulwith claims-handling (88) as well as policy purchase, renewals orinquiries (86). Customers also reported that insurers are doing abetter job than they were a year ago at timely claims processing,with a score of 86, but other areas, including billing (84), rangeof coverage options (83) and websites (81), have droppedslightly.

The availability of policy discounts and rewardsreceived the lowest rating (unchanged from 2013 at 77), showingthat consumers are still price-sensitive when it comes to theoverall cost of their P&C policies.

Life insurance scores drop

Customer satisfaction with life insurance dropped from arecord-high ACSI score a year ago, falling 3.6% to 80, according tothe report. Customers agreed that life insurers approve policiesfor customers efficiently, earning them a score of 86, and agentsand other staff were courteous and helpful, resulting in a score of84. The overall customer experience declined from a year ago,however. Life insurance company customers were most dissatisfiedwith the availability and range of discounts, including healthrewards and discounts for combining different types of policies,giving them a score of 74.

Health insurance satisfaction drops sharply

After four years of holding steady, the ACSI report says,customer satisfaction with health insurance fell 4.1% to 70, thelowest level for the category since 2005. The report notes thathistorically, health insurance ranks lower in customer satisfactionthan other types of insurance due to high premiums, deductibles andcopays, as well as more complex and frequently used claimsprocesses.

According to the report, higher costs, especially for grouppolicies provided through employers, have contributed to thedecline in satisfaction rating; so far, the impact of theAffordable Care Act on customer satisfaction is uncertain.Consumers rated individual policies the same as last year, with ascore of 74; however, satisfaction with group policies—the mostprevalent in the industry—declined significantly, from 72 to67.

The report notes that respondents said health insurancecompanies do not offer an outstanding experience in any area, butthey do score well on providing access to primary care (79) andspecialty care and hospital services (77). Customers are mostdissatisfied with call center operations—which now rank as the“least appealing” part of the policyholder experience, with a scoreof 68.

The ACSI Finance and Insurance Report 2014 is available onthe ACSI website.