New Service for TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com readers...roll mouse over, click on highlighted links in stories to review items from Amazon

   Now, keep up to date with daily feeds of newly posted stories about America's Seniors...click on the box to the left

Guardian Survey: Employees Aare confused about their Health Coverage and have no plans for healthcare in Retirement

NEW YORK, May 15 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- According to a recent Guardian survey, women (58%) were more likely than men (47%) to find paying for healthcare premiums and out of pocket costs a challenge.

But women (51%) are more likely than men (42%) to have done some retirement healthcare planning.

Gender seems to play a role in the perceptions about paying for healthcare, but employees of both sexes generally do not understand their healthcare coverage.

 Education and region are also factors that play a role in viewpoints about paying for and understanding healthcare.

The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, a leading provider of employee and voluntary benefits, including group medical plans conducted the survey, Benefits & Behavior: Spotlight on Group Medical to gain insight about consumer viewpoints on health, wellness and medical insurance.

This second segment of the study focused on consumer knowledge of health insurance fundamentals and perceptions about the cost of care. The first part of the study, released earlier this year, focused on consumer views about wellness.

  Making Dollars and Sense of Healthcare

  -- Two-thirds of the employees surveyed said that healthcare plans in general and healthcare coverage and benefits are difficult to understand.

  -- 65% of respondents without a college education said their healthcare expenses were a substantial or great challenge compared to 40% of those with a college degree.

  -- More than 1 in 5 respondents did not fill a prescription because of the cost involved.

  -- Less than 50% of Boomers are currently planning or believe they are fully prepared financially for their healthcare in retirement.

Respondents living in the North Central and Southern regions saw paying for healthcare as more of a challenge than those in the West.

  Paying for healthcare is a substantial/great challenge

  -- 59% North Central

  -- 56% South

  -- 50% Northeast

  -- 40% West

Employees don't fully understand some of the basic health care alphabet such as FSA (flexible spending account), HSA (health savings account) and HRA (health reimbursement account).

  -- Just over half of employees are aware of flexible spending accounts and health savings accounts in contrasts to four in ten aware of health reimbursement accounts.t accounts.t accounts.

  -- While two-thirds of those aware of FSAs and HSAs believe they can explain those plans to a co-worker, only about half of the respondents aware of HRAs feel they could do so.

"As women continue to make strides in the workforce and gain earning parity with men this may help to lessen the gender discrepancy we see with paying for healthcare," said Tim Bireley, vice president, Group Medical, Guardian.

Burgers, Cigarettes, Pills and Lawsuits

Respondents shared their viewpoints about key contributors to medical inflation and identified profits from pharmaceutical companies as the top cause for healthcare costs.

Collectively employees recognized their own behavior as a key factor in the mounting cost of healthcare and expressed interest in taking more control over their health to reduce medical expenses.

  Factor most responsible for increasing costs of healthcare

  -- Profits of drug companies (28%)

  -- Lawsuits against physicians (14%)

  -- Physician fees and salaries (9%)

  -- Poor health of the population (10%)

  -- Obesity (9%)

  -- Aging population (9%)

  -- Cost of prescriptions (8%)

  -- Smoking (5%)

  Population factors in total

  -- Poor health, obesity, aging and smoking (33%)

  -- Two-thirds of all employees and 85% of those who are currently enrolled or have participated in a wellness program in the past three years say that these programs are very effective in promoting good health.

Mandatory Healthcare -- Size Matters

Employees hold larger companies to a higher standard with regard to mandatory health insurance coverage. Employees believe companies should be required to provide health insurance if they have:

  -- <50 employees (53%)

  -- 50-99 employees (67%)

  -- 100-1000 employees (76%)

  -- >1000 employees (79%)

About The Study

The telephone survey conducted on October 2007 consisted of 473 individuals who were at least 18 years of age and who said that were employed either full or part time. The margin of error was plus or minus 6.4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.