People Aren’t Using Their Health Plans. Here’s Why.

Salary. Healthcare. Paid time off. 

They’re the most common pieces of a fully baked compensation package. Job seekers expect these things. It’s not surprising that healthcare ranks right at the top of employees’ priority lists. According to a recent survey from Workest, physical and mental healthcare top the list at #1 and #2, respectively. 

It’s no surprise then that employers invest a lot of money to provide healthcare. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, a family’s health plan costs approximately $22,221 annually, and employers typically pay about 75% of that cost. It’s expensive for them and it still requires the employee to pay quite a bit on their end, too. 

But there’s a problem: People often can’t and don’t use the health plans they and their employers have invested so much in. 

More than half of patients report delaying or avoiding care due to cost. 

It’s no secret that healthcare costs are continuing to rise with no end in sight. High-deductible health plans (HDHPs) are increasing in popularity, which means patients are left on the proverbial hook for the services they obtain, leading them to have to make “is it worth it” decisions about their day-to-day health that could have lasting and even catastrophic consequences. When both employers and employees are paying so much for healthcare, it seems absurd that employees are afraid to use it for everyday needs. But the fact remains, healthcare simply isn’t realistically affordable for many people. 

Avoidance of care has downstream consequences, and not just for those who postpone their doctors’ appointments. 

Approximately 75% of the United States’ healthcare spending is avoidable with preventive care and health maintenance, as so much is attributed to the worsening of chronic conditions. This means that while patients may be avoiding costs in the short term, they’re creating new, larger costs in the long term. By allowing conditions to go untreated, those conditions inevitably worsen, creating a sicker workforce, decreased productivity, missed work days, and disability leave. 

When employers are investing so heavily in trying to manage staff’s health, it’s incredibly frustrating to know that oftentimes, it simply doesn’t work. An expensive health plan is only good if its members actually get the care it covers. And people often don’t. 

It’s a story we hear often. Recently, one of our patients said, "Nice Healthcare defies the usual low expectations for modern healthcare: free visits, free prescriptions, responsive customer service, friendly and competent medical professionals. It leaves you asking, ‘why isn't everything more like this?’ Medical insurance plans leave you trying to talk yourself into whether something is important enough to require a visit. With Nice there's no reason not to.”

Another patient of ours recently said, “Nice does a lot of cool things, but nothing cooler than the mental healthcare visits available through their app. Many people could use some mental healthcare with a therapist, whether they realize it yet or not, but under medical insurance plans, you may still be paying a significant portion of the cost, especially on a high-deductible health plan…that just leaves me analyzing every single appointment and whether it was worth the cost of entry. If you have a rare breakthrough, sure, but if it’s a week of incremental progress, it’s tempting to decide that it wasn’t worth the hundreds of dollars you may be paying…With Nice, the visits are free for the patients, so none of that analysis happens. You can just have your appointment, talk to the therapist, and not have to pick apart how much an incremental improvement in your mental health is worth…"

People need care they can actually use. 

While we love hearing great feedback like this, it’s frustrating for all of us to know that every day, people face the challenge of putting a price tag on their own health. It’s also frustrating to know that all the while, employers are struggling to keep their employees happy and healthy, and they’re spending a lot of money to do so. 

When patients can get convenient care that doesn’t drain their HSAs or bank accounts, they use it. It helps everyone - employers, health plans, and of course–patients. It’s why we exist and why we’ve created a seamless model to promote preventive mental and physical health. We know the importance of preventing and managing conditions to reduce healthcare costs at the root of the problem. If you’d like to learn more about us and how we’re reimagining how care is delivered, contact us any time. As our name indicates, we’re Nice - and we’d love to hear from you.