Health insurance and all it involves — especially the selecting of a plan and the subsequent purchase of chosen plan — appear to be quite intimidating, United Healthcare suggests. So, while there may be more tools to compare plans and more plans available, consumers continue to struggle when selecting said plan.
Taking a deep breath a throwing a dart, many of us still lack the basic knowledge of health insurance to make the appropriate selection.
A new survey from UnitedHealth seems to suggest this and other findings that show the true face of what those of us choosing healthcare insurance coverage feel the moments before we decide to take the plunge.
For example, consumers would rather renew their driver's license, get their teeth cleaned or do their taxes than choose an insurance plan during their open enrollment periods. They also expect that reviewing their health insurance plans (for selection during open enrollment) will be worse than losing their credit card and having to get it replaced, losing their mobile phone (oh, the horror!), losing their luggage while traveling or getting a flat tire on their car.
As expected, those of us seeking new healthcare plans continuously turn to the interwebs for some help. Breaking this down, 25 percent of Americans use the internet or mobile apps as their first source of health plan information.
Almost half, 48 percent, of Americans first consult their primary care physician or nurse for guidance. Comparatively, people used online tools to compare media content more (49 percent) than compared plan info; compared airline tickets (45 percent); or compared computers and tech gadgets more than use the web to compare health plans.
Millennials are leading the charge with 49 percent shopping for health plans online, a number that actually seems low, while 81 percent of those who used the web to compare plans said they found it "very helpful" or at least "somewhat helpful." Fair enough, but most who search for information online for anything could probably provide a similar response (just saying).
Despite arguments about their effectiveness, fitness trackers are catching on — again, primarily among millennials. As many as 13 million of the devices are expected to be part of corporate wellness programs by 2018.
More than 55 percent of people said they are interested in using a wearable device as part of a workplace wellness program — perhaps because they can gain access to free devices through their work — and adoption of the devices by millennials is at least 60 percent of that subgroup of the population. Almost 30 percent of all the people surveyed said they don't care about fitness trackers.
Turning to telemedicine, 51 percent said they're likely not interested in trying the concept, even if it were affordable; 31 percent said they'd likely try it. Good for this group of folks. Telemedicine is likely set for explosive growth, and patients may have to ready themselves for it, especially with an impending physician shortage.
Perhaps most surprisingly as part of this research, though, is that people still like to connect to a real person when they need help with understanding plan information. 78 percent of people said they prefer a live person to chat. Again, should this surprise us? Not if you're not a millennial; personal contact still seems to matter here. When customers do speak to a representative, 30 percent ranked the person's knowledge as the most important factor of the experience.
"This survey underscores why UnitedHealthcare is working to simplify the healthcare experience for people and help them take full advantage of their healthcare benefits," Rebecca Madsen, UnitedHealthcare chief consumer officer, said in an announcement.
