NAIC Study Shows Half of Americans Lack Confidence When Choosing Insurance

Posted in Auto Insurance , Auto Insurance Claims , Health Insurance Claims

April 12th, 2010

If you feel some discomfort with the responsibility of choosing your insurance, you’re not alone, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). A recent study conducted by the association found that only 45 percent of Americans feel confident when making insurance decisions.

Americans Don’t Understand the Basics of Insurance

The study conducted by NAIC discovered a lot about what Americans do and don’t understand about health insurance and auto insurance. What was most interesting, however, is that 60 percent of those surveyed failed to properly answer the following questions:

• Does auto insurance cover personal property stolen from your car? (no)
• At what age do most people become eligible for Medicare? (65 years old)
• Can credit scores affect your auto premium? (yes)

Another interesting find from the study was that 86 percent of respondents said they don’t understand all of the terms being used in the current discussion on health care reform.

It’s Not All Your Fault You Don’t Understand

While it’s up to us to take time and read insurance forms before we sign them, NAIC suggest that it’s not all our faults that we don’t understand what’s going on in the world of insurance. The NAIC chief executive officer explained that being overwhelmed with new and conflicting information very often confuses us when trying to understand insurance, especially in relation to our nation’s health insurance and health care policies.

The NAIC suggests that in order to get up to speed, it’s important to do your homework, something that could help you improve your insurance IQ. If you’re not sure how you measure up, see which of the following you know in comparison to other Americans:

• 55 percent of all Americans don’t understand what a pre-existing condition is.
• 53 percent of Americans think they can only make changes to their group health insurance coverage during open enrollment.
• 16 percent have no idea when changes to group health coverage can be made.

So how do you measure up? Did you know the answers to the above questions? If not, it may be time to strengthen your own insurance IQ so that you don’t find yourself lacking confidence in choosing the right coverage like so many Americans.