Changing needs of health insurance buyers

The Affordable Care Act of 2010 triggered many changes in individual health insurance. No longer do consumers need to worry about being eligible for coverage. Affordability and gaps in coverage are now the primary concerns of insurance shoppers. These results come from OnlineAdviser, a free service that has addressed more than 60,000 consumer inquiries since 1997.

by Tony Novak, 11/10/2011

Prior to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act of 2010, the most common health insurance concern of consumers was finding affordable coverage. As many as one in three were not eligible for the most attractive insurance options. Between the years of 1997 and 2010, OnlineAdviser estimates that more than 6,000 consumers requested individual assistance because they could not find a plan that was available to them. This year the number dropped to less than 200 such requests.

The number of consumer requests for assistance dipped during the period of debate (2009 and early 2010) over health reform and then increased to the highest levels ever, the reasons that consumers request assistance are very different. The expansion of low priced quarantined issue mini-med plans means that consumers are no longer focused solely on finding coverage, but rather that they might not like what they find.

Over the past year we found a decrease in the number of people reporting:

• difficulty finding insurance (most are able to find guaranteed issue options)
• declined application due to controlled blood pressure or cholesterol
• rescissions
• forced removal from a parents' coverage
• understanding the insurance options that were available online
• trouble with coverage across state or national borders
• difficulty obtaining coverage for new immigrants
• problems with claims processing
• complaints over insurance limitations on mental health care (we can't explain this one)
• desire to purchase high level supplemental coverage (due to the removal of maximum policy coverage limits)
• requests for dental insurance (apparently keeping medical coverage became the sole focus of many during the recession)

During the same period we found an increase in the number of people reporting:

• difficulty obtaining personal service on an insurance Web site, especially Ehealth
• difficulty enrolling in Medicare and Medicaid
• need to cover large gaps in employer-provided coverage with supplemental coverage
• need to fill the gap until Medicare eligibility (due to early retirement or layoffs)
• dissatisfaction with lower levels of benefits provided by less expensive policies
• that colleges unfairly forced them to enroll in a proprietary insurance
• problems with selecting their own insurance agent when enrolling online
• pre-existing coverage limitations triggered a gap in coverage or waiting period
• dissatisfaction with increasing deductibles and co-payments, especially for prescription drugs
• dissatisfaction that insurance companies do not allow service requests by email

One notable factor remained unchanged. The portion of Web surfers looking for more affordable insurance remained strong throughout the entire period and was unaffected by the reform law. It appears that the primary focus of insurance shoppers on the web is to find cheaper coverage. While we stress to users that lower price always means lower level of benefits in the long run, consumers continue to prove to us that price is the key driver to health insurance enrollment.

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