The Other Health Insurance Gap: Who Doesn't Understand Health Insurance and How to Reach Them

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis:  The reforms now finally being implemented from the 2010 Affordable Care Act are increasing the numbers of Americans with health insurance coverage as well as changing coverage for some existing enrollees.  However, many are likely confused by this new world of co-pays, deductibles, and in/out of network coverage.  So who is “behind the curve” on these health insurance details, and how can they be best reached?

Methods and Results (informing the conceptual analysis):  In Spring 2014, Porter Novelli’s ConsumerStyles survey (a nationally-representative survey fielded with GfK’s Knowledge Panel) will explore consumers’ self-reported difficulties with navigating the health insurance system.   We expect that consumers have difficulty understanding a variety of insurance concepts such as co-pays, deductibles, out-of-pocket payments, and in or out of network care, and this difficulty is especially high among those newly enrolled.  Results will be analyzed by looking at responses for all adults and segmenting Americans by age and insurance coverage (including the uninsured).  We will then profile these groups to understand their preferred sources of information for personal finances and health problems.

Conclusions:  Conclusions are pending the results of the survey, which will field April-early May 2014.   Analysis will compare the level of need for health insurance guidance, and on which topics, across generations and insurance statuses (e.g. Boomers with employer coverage, Gen Xers who are uninsured, etc).  Then we will review the preferred information sources (e.g. friends/family, health providers, general web searches, going to specific websites) for the key segments in most need of additional information on health insurance. 

Implications for research and/or practice:  These data will provide an overview for who is in most need of a health insurance “101,” which topics have the most confusion, and their preferred methods of finding information on health and finances.  Segmenting by both insurance status and age will show key differences within insurance/age groups to help advocates better target and educate both the long-time insured, the newly insured (via health exchanges), and the uninsured.