Summary
Key findings in the report include:
• Many employees are financially vulnerable to unexpected medical expenses and continue to experience financial difficulties related to those costs. Fifty-three percent of employees with a recent medical event paid at least $1,000 out of pocket, yet only 28% said they were very prepared for an unexpected $1,000 expense. Nearly half, 47%, experienced at least moderate financial difficulty because of medical events, 45% said they were still experiencing financial difficulty related to past medical expenses and 37% reported having a medical bill sent to collections.
• Employees have limited understanding of many workplace benefits. Only 54% reported a high level of understanding of health insurance, and 53% reported a high level of understanding of retirement benefits. Understanding was lower for supplemental health products, with 40% reporting a high level of understanding of critical illness insurance and 35% reporting a high level of understanding of hospital indemnity insurance.
• Plain-language descriptions increased employees’ interest in voluntary benefits. After reading concise benefit descriptions, 83% of employees were somewhat or very interested in dental insurance, 79% in vision insurance, 76% in critical illness insurance, 71% in accident insurance and 63% in hospital indemnity insurance. The report notes that expressed interest does not guarantee enrollment and that affordability and perceptions of existing coverage remain important considerations.
• Cost concerns are causing employees to postpone care. More than half of employees reported having delayed or avoided medical care because of cost concerns, including 26% who delayed care within the past year. Employees also reported postponing dental and vision care because of cost.
• Burnout was associated with greater medical and financial hardship. Fifty-six percent of employees reported at least one symptom of burnout. Among employees reporting burnout symptoms, 54% experienced moderate to extreme financial difficulty related to medical events, compared with 3% of employees without burnout symptoms. The findings demonstrate an association and do not establish that medical expenses caused burnout.
• Employees may be unaware of benefits available through their workplaces. Differences between employer and employee responses may also reflect eligibility requirements, plan design and how workers understand or recall available coverage. Employers previously surveyed by EBRI and Lincoln Financial were more likely to report offering several benefits than employees were to report having access to those benefits. For example, 46% of employers reported offering accident insurance, compared with 28% of employees who said the coverage was available to them.
• Enrollment was relatively strong when employees reported having access to supplemental health benefits. Seventy percent enrolled in accident insurance, 61% enrolled in hospital indemnity insurance and 53% enrolled in critical illness insurance. For each of the three products, 57% of enrollees described the coverage as very important.