The insurance industry improved by 2.6 percent to a score of 80, its highest in more than a decade on the scale of 100 points.
Scores of individual insurers on the list include: State Farm on top with 81; Allstate unchanged at 78; GEICO sliding by 4 percent to 80 and Farmers falling 3 percent to 76. Progressive was up 8 percent to 79, the biggest jump of any company, prompted by Web site improvements and rate cuts, according to the survey authors.
Satisfaction with health insurers, however, slipped 1.4 percent, to 71. UnitedHealth declined the most, down 4 percent to 65.
Overall Americans' satisfaction with goods and services declined in the fourth quarter of 2007, falling .4 percent to 74.9. ACSI measures retail, finance and insurance and e-commerce every fourth quarter.
"Falling customer satisfaction has a dampening effect on consumer demand, and household debt to income ratios affect consumers' ability to spend. Both are moving in the wrong direction, brewing up a double-whammy that may hit the economy hard," said Claes Fornell, head of the ACSI. "In such an environment, customer satisfaction becomes even more important because satisfied buyers tend to reduce sellers' cash flow volatility."