Many Americans are often too confused by their health coverage to try to use it.
Analysts at eHealth, a web-based health insurance broker, talk about the confusion problem in a summary of results from a survey of about 1,000 U.S. adults that was conducted in early May.
The survey team found that 53% of all survey participants reported that uncertainty about health benefits had prevented them from seeking medical care in the past 12 months.
The share reporting confusion-related access problems was just 45% for survey takers with Medicare plan coverage and 60% for survey takers with employer coverage.
The percentages were similar when eHealth asked whether worries about out-of-pocket costs had prevented the survey takers from seeking medical care in the past 12 months.
Only 46% of the survey takers with Medicare said worries about their "skin in the game" had kept them from getting care. About 58% of the survey takers with employer coverage said cost-sharing worries had kept them from getting care.
The eHealth team also asked participants to rate the importance of four factors that might hurt their ability to use their health coverage. The summary of results from that question provides only data for all survey takers, not data broken down by the survey taker's coverage type.
Only 12% of all of the survey takers said problems with inaccurate provider directories were a major source of confusion, and just 6% rated difficulties with reading insurance documents as a major concern.
About 29% blamed problems with understanding what their plans actually cover, and 30% blamed problems with understanding what the cost of out-of-network care might be.
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