Many 20-somethings are managing their healthcare expenses and insurance plans for the first time on their own. But when terms like coinsurance, deductible or premium tax credit are practically meaningless, how can they sufficiently navigate their options?
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania developed a study published Tuesday in the Journal of Adolescent Health that examined how young people are tackling the enrollment process on HealthCare.gov.
Thirty young adults in Philadelphia, ages 19 through 30, were observed by the researchers as they went through the motions of enrollment. “We asked them to think out loud, so we could really capture their experience,” Charlene Wong, a pediatrician at the University of Pennsylvania who lead the study, told NPR.
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According to Wong, many of the participants said they felt overwhelmed – not to mention half of the participants couldn’t define “deductible,” and three quarters couldn’t explain “coinsurance.” Also, many thought that an affordable plan would be less than $100, but in Philadelphia, the cheapest plan is $187, without tax credits.
The participants in the study were college-educated, tech-savvy young people. “Considering that, we were really surprised at just how much they didn’t know,” Wong said.
Wong said the findings show that the government and insurance companies need to do a better job of educating people about policy basics.
Even for those older than millennials, health insurance policies aren’t necessarily easy to understand. “It’s dry material,” Erin Hemlin the health care campaign director at Young Invincibles, an advocacy group that helps educate young people about health policy, told NPR.
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Young Invincibles conducts weekly Twitter chats and has developed an app that helps guide people through the enrollment process.
As Hemlin pointed out, if this process is difficult for young, educated people, it can be even harder for demographic groups.
“I spent about four months in Texas during the first open enrollment period helping a mostly low-income, Latino population apply for insurance,” she said. “It was so disheartening, because these insurance terms are confusing in English. And they don’t translate well at all.”
Not understanding healthcare policy lingo could be very detrimental if it deters people from signing up.
“This lack of health insurance literacy is the biggest barrier right now,” Hemlin said. “I want more young people to realize ‘Oh, wait, I actually can afford this.’ ”
Photo: Flickr user Sybren Stüvel
