Only 41% of Baby Boomers Know Their Health Insurance Features and Benefits

The complexities of insurance coverage for baby boomers and seniors can often be overwhelming, leading to confusion and difficulties in navigating a friction-filled healthcare system.

In “The Digital Platform Promise: What Baby Boomers and Seniors Want From Digital Healthcare Platforms” report, PYMNTS leverages insights gathered from a survey of over 2,500 U.S. consumers to evaluate their understanding of their existing health insurance coverage and assess their interest in using unified digital platforms to manage their medical services and benefits.

As noted in the study, done jointly by PYMNTS and Lynx, only 41% of older, insured consumers are very familiar with the products and services their health insurance covers — a troubling fact considering that baby boomers and seniors tend to have more healthcare-related tasks to manage on the daily, from making appointments and filling prescriptions to bill payments.

Another 39% of baby boomers and seniors said they are slightly or somewhat familiar with their health plans’ coverage, while 21% said they are only slightly or not all familiar with what their health insurance offers.

For these older consumers, unified digital platforms offering a centralized hub to access their insurer’s benefits and conduct all their healthcare activities can make a significant difference, sparing them the trouble of having to deal with multiple separate tools and web portals.

As the report noted, “among respondents at least somewhat interested in unified digital platforms, 57% of baby boomers and seniors cited convenient access to all their healthcare information as a key reason — a much higher share than observed among younger age groups.”

Our study further revealed that an even greater share of baby boomers and seniors (close to 90%) who expressed at least slight interest in using unified digital healthcare platforms said they would prefer to use it to schedule appointments, check in for appointments and connect with healthcare providers’ websites or patient portals.

Beyond convenience, unified digital platforms also have the potential to enhance users’ healthcare knowledge and management skills.

Among older respondents interested in using these platforms, 65% of them pointed to this reason, highlighting how access to comprehensive healthcare information can help them make more informed decisions about their health. This knowledge also empowers them to take control of their health and ensures they receive the appropriate treatments and services.