When it comes to health insurance, the majority of people are looking for the most inexpensive plan that they can find. However, a survey of health insurance agents shows that there are times when a consumer wants a higher priced health insurance plan. Why do they want to pay more? The answers to that question are interesting.
A study called “2012 Survey of Agent-Carrier Relationships” was recently conducted. It was sponsored by Insurance Journal. It was conducted by Channel Harvest (which is a partnership between Aartrijk and Campbell Communications). The survey asked over 1,500 insurance agents 90 separate questions.
I recently got approved for health insurance. When I was searching around for coverage the most important factor that I needed to know was the price of the premiums. For me, it didn’t matter how many “bells and whistles” a particular insurance plan had if the cost of the premiums were more than I would be able to afford in the first place. I also didn’t really have a preference about which insurance company the policy came from. I just needed a plan that I could afford, and that would cover basic things.
About 25% of the independent insurance agents who took the survey said that their customers almost always choose the cheapest health insurance policy. This happened at least 90% of the time. Personally, it sounds to me like the people making this choice were like me. They had absolutely no health insurance coverage and very little money to put towards paying health insurance premiums.
More than one-third of insurance agents said that their customers selected the more expensive health insurance carriers. This happened around 25% (or more) of the time. Why are these people choosing to pay for a health insurance plan that is more expensive than the cheapest plan on the market?
63% are choosing a higher priced health insurance plan because they needed coverage that the cheapest carrier did not offer. In other words, these people had a health condition that required certain types of treatment, prescription medications, or care that the least expensive plan was not going to cover. To get that coverage, they needed to buy a higher priced plan.
49% selected a higher priced plan because it had better add-on features than the cheapest plan did. Sometimes, people need to add additional insurance to their health plan. It could be a maternity rider, dental insurance, or vision coverage. In some cases, the cheapest plan will not allow people to add to it.
The next answer is the most interesting to me. 32% of customers picked a plan that was not the cheapest because they had, in the past, purchased health insurance from the company that had the cheapest plan. They were unhappy with the customer service that they received from that insurer. Or, they were dissatisfied with how that insurer handled their claims. This group felt it was better to pay more in premiums than to deal with a health insurance company that was not treating them very well.
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