Enhancing the Value of Health
Insurance by Making it Simpler
Victor G. Villagra, MD, FACP
Associate Director
UCONN Health Disparities Institute
May 30, 2015
UCONN Health Disparities Institute
The HDI Health Insurance Advance
A five-year initiative aimed at increasing the value of health insurance and in
doing so enhance the health and wellbeing of people at the highest risk of
experiencing healthcare inequities
HI
Simplification
HI product simplification
2019
HI language simplification
2018
We are here
2017
HI literacy/WB Assessment
2016
Strategy: 5-year Roadmap
• Health Insurance Literacy
• Navigation Support
• Health Insurance
Simplification
HI literacy campaign
Enhanced navigation support
EC2C Coalition
2015
5/31/2017
Supporting consumers
HI literacy Symposium
2
Value of Health Insurance
Simple is hard
Dealing with Health Insurance Complexity
Support strategies
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Health insurance literacy
In-person navigation support
Better web designs
Cost calculators
Transparency tools
Cognitive short-cuts
Choosing wisely
Consumer protection laws
Transform strategies
• Default consumer behaviors are
reliably error free
• OOP cost is predictable (no
surprises)
• Product features add value
• Fewer options is better
• Eliminating “choosing unwisely”
• Fewer exceptions to rules
Simple
• Baking a cake.
• All that is needed is to follow a
recipe.
• The process is generalizable
• The results are predictable
• While special skill at cooking is a
plus, it is not essential for success.
Complicated
• Sending a rocket to the moon.
• Millions of features are connected by
predictable cause-effect relationships.
• Requires teams of experts to make it
work.
• Success with one rocket provides
reasonable assurance of success with
future rockets.
Complex
• Raising a child is complex.
• Success in raising one child is
no guarantee of success in
raising another.
• Few predictable cause-effect
relationships
• Independent or autonomous
actors
• Emerging properties