Retirement & Financial Planning Report

Health Insurance Design Preferences Differ by Generation

The millennial generation’s preferences regarding health insurance differ from those of their predecessor generations, according to a report from the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Those differing views could presage changes in how such plans, including those in the FEHB program, are designed since that generation—born in 1977-2000—already outnumbers baby boomers—born in 1946-1965.

“Employers are interested in the role of millennials in the labor force and how that might be different from the roles of prior generations. For example, as employers try to better engage their workers in their health care, they want to understand how different workers may react to different plan design features and other engagement efforts,” it said.

For example, its survey found that lower premiums are very important to 74 percent of baby boomers but to just 61 percent of millennials. Meanwhile, 47 percent of millennials think that the opportunity to save money in an account for use in the future is very important, compared with just 38 percent among baby boomers.

Further, 82 percent of baby boomers said ease of access to health care and 80 percent say prescription drug coverage is extremely or very important in their choice of a plan and versus 72 and 73 percent, respectively, among millennials.

The generation in between those two, commonly called Generation X, also fell in between them regarding those issues; that generation will outnumber baby boomers in about 10 years.

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