Health Insurance Shopping Online
by Maribeth Neelis
DENVER -- April 11, 2008 -- InsureMe, a web-based service that helps people obtain insurance, announced results of research to determine which age groups are shopping for health insurance online.
"It appears that, by and large, younger people tend to shop online for individual health insurance," said Peter Deusterman, the in-house statistician for InsureMe. "Month over month, nearly 35 percent of people shopping online for health insurance on InsureMe.com are between 18 and 30. And surprisingly, the 30 to 50 age group stays pretty much neck and neck with the 20-somethings," he added.
 It appears that, by and large, younger people tend to shop online for individual health insurance  |
Younger demographics are generally more internet-savvy, accustomed to performing a slew of transactions online, from paying bills to booking airline tickets.
The question is why so many Gen Xers and Gen Yers are in the market for individual health insurance in the first place.
According to the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that aims to promote a high performing health care system, nearly 18 million young adults (19-29) are uninsured because they are unable participate in their family plan because of age restrictions, ineligible for student health insurance, or have an employer that does not offer health insurance.
But according to InsureMe.com statistics, the middle-age group (30-50) is searching for health coverage online at an equal rate to the young adults. One explanation is that fewer companies offer group health insurance.
America's Health Insurance Plans, the insurance industry's lobbying group, reported that more than 18 million people buy their own insurance because they are self-employed or their jobs don't offer it.
According to an annual report by the Kaiser Family Foundation, the percentage of all employers offering health insurance spiked in 2000 at 69 percent, and then preceded to fall steadily, hitting 60 percent in 2007. From 2001 to 2005, the number of uninsured U.S. workers rose by 3.4 million, sending more of the working population (19-50) online to buy individual health plans.
As people become more comfortable with the internet, insurance referral companies, like InsureMe.com, will see a surge in traffic for all insurance types. But the high number of health insurance shoppers in this 19-50 age range may also be indicative of the rising cost of health care and the decrease in employer-sponsored health plans.
