Insurance survey reveals consumers' lack of understanding

A survey by Fleishman-Hillard Research indicates that almost twice as many people know the co-payment on their health insurance policy as the maximum out-of-pocket costs. The co-payment has little economic importance compared with the total out-of-pocket expense. The variance between different policies in their maximum out-of-pocket expenses is much more significant than the difference in co-payments. For example, policy co-payments range from $5 to $50, a difference of only $45. Maximum out-of-pocket range from $1,250 to more than $15,000. Obviously the out-of-pocket expense has more impact on the policyholder’s overall financial well-being. Yet only one in three people know the maximum out-of-pocket of their policy. Buyers who are aware only of the co-payment are more likely to make wrong policy selection decisions.