Survey of Consumer Health Insurance Literacy Reveals Less Than Half of Americans Understand How Their Plan Works
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The PolicyGenius health insurance literacy survey asked respondents to rate their personal level of "confidence" (how well they thought they understood the important health insurance terms), as well as their "comprehension" (their actual understanding of these terms). The findings showed that women were more aware of their actual understanding than men, with a 22% gap between women's self-rated confidence in their knowledge of insurance terms and their actual comprehension, compared with a 29% gap for men. Millennials (age 25-34 consumers) had the lowest overall comprehension of health insurance terms and were least aware of their lack of understanding, showing a 29% gap between their confidence and comprehension. The least understood health insurance term was "coinsurance" with only 22% of consumers able to correctly define it, compared to 42% who correctly defined "out-of-pocket maximum," 50% who understood the meaning of "deductible" and 52% for "co-pay."
The PolicyGenius health insurance literacy survey also showed that 72% of those with non-employer-provided health insurance policies plan to shop on the open marketplace for coverage this year. Based on the
"Due to a decrease of insurers available on the ACA marketplaces this year and an average 10% increase in premiums, consumers will be hard-pressed to find the best policy for their money," said
PolicyGenius, which launched in 2014 to provide consumers with direct access to life, long-term disability, renters and pet insurance with a highly accurate quoting engine that offers side-by-side comparisons of tailored policies and unbiased decision support, is excited to add health insurance to its platform today. The PolicyGenius health insurance app will offer consumers access to both on-exchange and off-exchange health insurance plans, supported with plain English explanations of benefits, transparent shopping options and smart decisioning tools. The PolicyGenius health insurance literacy survey also indicated: Most insured Americans are satisfied with their current plan, at 70% of
People who used their health insurance 2-3 times in the past year are 12% more likely to be satisfied with their plan than those who used it just once.
Millennials are most likely to be satisfied with their health insurance plan, at 77%.
There is no variation in plan satisfaction between those who have individual insurance versus employer-provided insurance.
More than half of respondents aren't very confident in their ability to choose the best health insurance plan for their needs.
Only one-third of women overall are "very confident" in their ability to choose the best health insurance plan for their needs.
The two groups that showed the highest confidence in their ability to choose the best plan were men at 58% and millennials at 43%.
The survey found higher confidence levels in men over women (12% difference) and younger vs older respondents (millennials were most confident at 43%, 10% more than ages 45-55) in their ability to choose the best plan.
The study of 2,022 respondents was conducted online from
For more advice and insight please visit our blog, and for the most accurate insurance quotes please visit our health, life, long-term disability, renters and pet insurance quote engines at www.policygenius.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161101005704/en/
Keywords for this news article include: PolicyGenius,
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