One in Three Insured Workers Would Consider Leaving Jobs if Health Insurance Weren’t a Factor

• Policygenius Annual Survey Also Finds People Reliant on Social Media for Health Insurance Information Are More Likely to Avoid COVID-19 Testing and Care

As record numbers of Americans leave their jobs in the “Great Resignation,” a new survey finds health insurance is holding back some workers from joining the wave.

One in three full or part time workers (33%) would be very or somewhat likely to leave their jobs in the near future if health insurance weren’t a factor,according to an annual survey from insurtech leader Policygenius. More than one in four respondents (26%) said they’d be at least somewhat likely to start their own business if health insurance weren’t a factor, and 37% of insured Americans ages 18 to 34 would be at least somewhat likely to pursue entrepreneurship if health insurance weren’t a factor.

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“People may have health conditions that would leave them in financial hardship if not for their employer-sponsored health insurance, so they decide to stick it out with their current employer instead of starting their own business or finding a job that could be a better fit,” Myles Ma, health insurance expert at Policygenius, said.

The survey also found that people whose primary source of health insurance information is social media were more likely to avoid COVID-19 testing (39% of those getting health insurance information vs. 14% of those relying most on other sources), treatment (20% vs. 8%), and care (22% vs. 8%). According to the survey, 39% of people who use social media as their main source of health insurance information say they’ve ever avoided COVID-19 testing, compared to only 11% of people who rely on government websites. One in five people (22%) who primarily rely on social media for health insurance information also said they have ever avoided COVID-19 care, compared to 7% of people who rely on government websites.

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“Each year we’ve run this survey, we’ve found there’s a lot of general confusion around basic health insurance literacy, but this year we also saw the impact of social media misinformation bear out in the number of people who’ve avoided COVID-19 testing and care,” Ma said.

The fifth annual Policygenius Health Insurance Literacy Survey also found that:

• Among insured workers 18-34 years old, 40% expressed interest in leaving their jobs in the near future if health insurance weren’t a factor.
• 28% of people rely on traditional media (e.g. websites, news apps, print, TV) as their primary source of health insurance information, compared to 27% who rely on friends and family, 22% on government websites, and 9% on social media.
• Just 28% of people were aware that there is currently no penalty for going without health insurance.
• Only 30% of Americans knew it was possible to receive financial assistance to get a plan from the federal health insurance marketplace.

Policygenius commissioned YouGov to poll a nationally representative sample of 1,410 Americans 18 or older, of whom 1,227 reported having health insurance at the time of the interview. The survey was carried out online from Sept. 10 through Sept. 13, 2021. The results have been weighted to be representative of all U.S. adults.

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