Many long-term uninsured likely to stay that way: report

Long-term uninsured people are less likely to sign up for health insurance as mandated under the health reform law despite being aware of both the penalties that come with noncompliance and the subsidies to help in its purchase, a new report found.

About 63% of respondents who reported being uninsured for a period of more than five years indicated they were unlikely to buy insurance on the health insurance exchanges compared with only 12% of that group who said they would likely enroll in a plan, according to the results of a survey of 1,000 adults between the ages of 18 and 34 conducted by international marketing consulting firm Prophet.

The purpose of the report, according to co-author Jeff Gourdji, associate partner at Prophet, was to get a sense of consumers' attitudes after their experience with the first open-enrollment period to buy health coverage through the insurance exchanges. Insurers can use the findings to more effectively market their products when the next open-enrollment period comes around in November, according to Gourdji.

Millennials not covered by their parents' health plans and Hispanics are the two demographics identified in the report as the most sought after markets for insurers.

“Millennials are where we see an opportunity because they have a more positive attitude about the exchanges,” said report co-author John Kutz, a partner at Prophet. “We find that the millennials are now getting to that point in life where they are starting to have children and starting to think longer term so they are getting more engaged.”

While accounting for 17% of the U.S. population, Hispanics make up 31% of the uninsured, 85% of which Gourdji estimated were eligible for subsidies of some level. “Right off the bat those facts alone give us a picture of fertile ground for the health insurance companies or hospitals starting health plans to go after this population,” Gourdji said.

Among those surveyed, 46% of Hispanics who had not yet enrolled on an exchange indicated that they planned to do so in the future, according to the report.

Concerns over affordability and a general distrust of insurance companies were found to be among the biggest reasons respondents gave for not purchasing a health plan. The report found that 57% of those who were eligible for subsidies to help buy insurance were unaware of their status.

“We believe firmly that all-things-to-all-people types of marketing don't work,” Gourdji said. “This report really clarifies who the groups are that insurers can deprioritize in terms of their marketing efforts, and which groups are really critical to go after.”

Follow Steven Ross Johnson on Twitter: @MHsjohnson