Pivot Health Survey Finds More Than Half of Short-Term Health Insurance Customers Lost Employer Coverage or Were Uninsured Before Purchasing

Number of individuals who lost employer coverage in 2020 jumped from 29% in April to 36% in November

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A new consumer survey finds that 54% of U.S. adults who purchased a short-term health insurance plan did so after experiencing a job loss or other life situation as Americans continue to wrestle with the coronavirus pandemic and unemployment.

Pivot Health, the coverage division of HealthCare.com, conducted a survey of customers in mid-November to gauge satisfaction and sentiment for short-term health insurance as the Supreme Court deliberates the validity of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Key Findings

• From 2019 to 2020, loss of employer coverage jumped from 27% to 37%, whereas general uninsured numbers dropped from 31% to 17% among Pivot Health customers.
• Most notably, customers who bought a short-term health plan after having ACA coverage remained at 5% overall, down one percentage point from a 2019 survey.
• 29% of insureds said they selected a short-term medical plan because they did not qualify for a federal tax subsidy to help reduce the cost of insurance.
• When asked if they would recommend short-term health insurance to family or friends, 87% said they would.

Turning to the Supreme Court ruling, only 11% of short-term customers thought the Court would strike down the ACA law in its entirety. If that occurs, 54% of those surveyed said the federal government should create a new health insurance program similar to the ACA or build a “Medicare for All” option. Fifty-one percent said they believed the Court would strike some parts of the law.

The poll found 75% do not approve of limiting short-term health coverage to three months or less, which could occur under the Biden administration. In addition, final results went on to find 52% of customers are comfortable with the trade-off of fewer benefits for the lower cost of coverage.

“Short-term medical serves a niche market,” said Jeff Smedsrud, co-founder of HealthCare.com and Chief Executive Officer of Pivot Health. “We’re helping an unrepresented category of people who are stuck between affording ACA coverage and being uninsured and financially vulnerable. The survey demonstrates that people are satisfied with their coverage. We hope our findings prove to elected officials that short-term health insurance is an important product to Americans.”

Read all the findings of the Pivot Health customer survey here.

About Pivot Health (a HealthCare.com company)

Launched in 2016, Pivot Health is an insurance product development, management and marketing company led by an experienced team of health insurance professionals that have managed over $7 billion of insurance premium. The company has proprietary products and dedicated relationships with many national insurance companies. Pivot Health was acquired in 2018 by HealthCare.com, the nation’s largest privately-owned search-and-compare health insurance shopping platform. For more information, visit www.pivothealth.com and www.healthcare.com.

Methodology

Pivot Health conducted a satisfaction survey in November 2020 with current customers who have active policies. Four hundred and forty-six customers from 35 states completed the survey. The survey was carried out online. The figures are representative of U.S. adults aged 18-64.