Customer satisfaction with the health insurance industry fellafter two years of improvement on the American CustomerSatisfaction Index (ACSI). Meanwhile satisfaction with thelife and property insurance industries ticked up.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index is a national economicindicator of customer evaluations of the quality of products andservices available to household consumers in the United States.According to the latest report, customer satisfaction with healthinsurance fell 2.7 percent to an ACSI score of 73. The aggregate ofsmaller companies led the industry, down 1 percent to 76.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield dropped 4 percent to 70, but is aheadof the other large insurers, while Aetna fell 3 percent to 68.

UnitedHealth plummeted 10 percent to an industry low of 65.Complaints about customer service and the recent handling ofMedicare drug coverage are at the forefront of UnitedHealth'stroubles. WellPoint is the only health insurer that showed animprovement, up 3 percent to 69.

"The cause of the customer satisfaction decline is not difficultto find--sharp increases in premium costs and deductibles are toblame," said Claes Fornell, founder of the ACSI and author of "TheSatisfied Customer: Winners and Losers in the Battle for BuyerPreference."

"Medical costs are rising and companies are passing on a greatershare of the insurance burden to employees. When consumers pay morewithout getting better service, they are obviously not happy."

Life and property insurance are tied with credit unions for thehighest ACSI score in financial services. The life insuranceindustry gained 1.3 percent to 80, while property & casualtyinsurance is unchanged at 80.

Smaller life insurers led the category, up 1 percent to 81.Northwestern Mutual topped the big companies, despite a small 1percent dip to 80, followed by New York Life, down 3 percent to 78.MetLife and Prudential--the largest players in the life insurancebusiness--are close behind, with MetLife up 1 percent to 78 andPrudential unchanged at 77.

Among property & casualty companies, State Farm maintainedthe lead, unchanged at 82, followed by GEICO, also unchanged at 81.Progressive and Allstate each fall 1 percent to 79 and 78,respectively, while Farmers dropped 3 percent to 76 to round outthe industry.

2010 marks the fourth consecutive year that Farmers has occupiedthe bottom spot.

"Life and property & casualty typically do better withcustomers compared to health insurers because premiums are lowerand policyholders have fewer reasons to interact with the insurancecompany, so there are fewer opportunities for things to go wrong,"said Fornell. "This is particularly true for lifeinsurance--premiums typically are fixed for the duration of thepolicy, and once a policy is in place, a customer might never againinteract with the insurer."