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MacroMonitor Market Trends Newsletter October 2013

The MacroMonitor Market Trends Newsletter from Consumer Financial Decisions (CFD) highlights topical news and trends of interest to you and your colleagues.

Households without Health-Care Insurance

October 2013 begins enrollment for coverage under the 2010 Affordable Health Care Act (ACA). The law is lengthy and complex. Because implementing the legislation has become a highly politicized process, few households have correct information. Several years will pass after the law goes into effect (January 2014) before a determination is final about whether ACA works according to its design. Much will depend on how many people enroll and how healthy they are. US Census Bureau findings about income, poverty, and health-insurance coverage can indicate only potential maximum market opportunity. Income in relation to the poverty level determines which households are eligible; age—but not preexisting medical conditions—will be a factor in determining premiums.

Health-care-insurance providers' challenge is to attract a diverse policyholder base. A deep understanding of uninsured households—their profile and all their financial needs, attitudes, and priorities—will be a critical factor in determining target populations. Further, an understanding of uninsured households' motivations on which to base communication strategies will differentiate between insurers' success and their failure. The MacroMonitor provides all this information.

Households without Health-Care Insurance

Government participation incentives in the form of subsidies (tax credits) will not motivate 25% of households without health-care insurance that did not file income taxes in 2011—a baseline year. Because 38% of uninsured households earned a total annual household income of less than $20K, premiums may never be low enough to enable participation. The first step toward an attractive enrollee base is to encourage uninsured households to find out if they qualify for ACA coverage. For households that do qualify, many questions have limited answers. For example, how much will yearly premiums cost? Which households can afford the cost? Which households are most likely to pay the noninsured penalty rather than monthly premiums? What are the persuasive benefits, other than low cost, to enroll? These key questions are important to health-insurance providers, public-policy agencies, and other enterprises competing for households that are currently uninsured. Finding households at the margins will represent the best opportunities for insurers.

Read more about the law's specifics

If this market segment is important to your business:

MacroMonitor subscribers may request a package of custom, edited data tables and charts that profile households that do, and do not, have health-insurance coverage.

In addition, from their CFD client-landing page, subscribers may:

  • Access the October 2013 Segment Summary, Potential ACA-Qualifying Households.
  • Download the October 2013 Dirty Dozen—a dozen annotated graphic-analysis slides that pertain to health-care insurance.
  • View Quick Stats for socioeconomic level definitions and a chart of households in each level from 2002 through 2012.
  • Schedule a full presentation about these households, including a customized and proprietary Q&A session. Contact us to schedule your presentation.

If you are not a MacroMonitor subscriber but would like more information about households without health insurance, please contact us for package information and pricing.