This document summarizes the results of a survey of individuals and families shopping for health insurance on eHealthInsurance.com between 2010-2011. It finds that the average shopper is female, college-educated, married, between ages 45-64, and employed. Over a third report being uninsured. Reasons for shopping include rising costs and impending loss of coverage. The document compares these results to a prior survey from 2009-2010 to identify trends, such as a decrease in those with employer coverage and an increase in COBRA plans. It provides demographic breakdowns of insured versus uninsured shoppers.

1. 2010/2011
National Consumer Survey
of Individual & Family Health Insurance
Shoppers at eHealthInsurance.com

2. Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Individual & Family Health Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Health Care Reform in 2010 and 2011 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Surveying Today’s Health Insurance Shopper . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Consumer Snapshots (2010-2011) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Survey Highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Insurance Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Employment Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Reasons for Shopping, and End-consumer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Contact Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
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3. Introduction
Individual & Family Health Insurance
Major medical individual & family health insurance is purchased by consumers on the open market to
provide coverage for themselves, their children, or their families. Individual & family coverage is
di erentiated from group health insurance, which is typically obtained as a bene t through one’s employer.
Approximately 14 million Americans are presently covered by individual & family health insurance plans in
the United States1. That number may increase substantially beginning in 2014 when the so-called “individual
mandate” outlined in the Patient Protection and A ordable Care Act of 2010 comes into e ect. The mandate
will require most Americans without employer-based coverage to obtain individual & family coverage for
themselves.
Health Care Reform in 2010 and 2011
The Patient Protection and A ordable Care Act will deliver big changes to the individual & family health
insurance market – changes both in the design of the health insurance products sold and in the
demographics of the consumer population. Provisions of the law are being phased in between 2010 and
2014. Some of these changes are already visible in the market today.
Provisions of the new law that came into e ect in 2010 seek to provide improved access to coverage for
children and young adults up to age 26, to guarantee coverage for certain preventive medical screenings,
and to end lifetime bene t limits for many covered medical services. With few exceptions, these changes
were made e ective for new individual & family plans purchased on or after September 23, 2010, and for
most group health insurance plans at the policy’s rst annual renewal after that date.
Surveying Today’s Health Insurance Shopper
eHealth, Inc.’s ‘National Consumer Survey of Individual & Family Health Insurance Shoppers’ presents results
from an ongoing survey of consumers who contacted the eHealthInsurance Customer Care Center between
September 2010 and February 2011. It also presents a year-over-year comparison of consumer responses to
the same survey questions gathered between September 2009 and February 2010. Sta ed with over 100
licensed health insurance agents, the eHealthInsurance Customer Care Center receives thousands of calls
every month from consumers looking for health insurance.
The purpose of the survey is to provide a snapshot of the characteristics and concerns of today’s individual &
family health insurance shoppers. By providing year-over-year comparisons of survey responses, the present
report also tracks changes in consumer demographics and behavior before and after the Patient Protection
and A ordable Care Act was signed into law on March 23, 2010.
eHealth, Inc.’s ‘National Consumer Survey of Individual & Family Insurance Shoppers’ is not intended to
provide a comprehensive overview of the entire individual & family insurance market. It samples only
consumers who have contacted eHealthInsurance while shopping for individually-purchased health
insurance products and who respond to a survey. At this time, eHealthInsurance.com is the single largest
source of individual & family health insurance products nationwide, o ering thousands of products from a
broad selection of brand-name health insurance companies.
Refer to the Methodology section of this report for more information on how the survey was conducted.
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4. Consumer Snapshots 2010-2011
Portrait of the Individual & Family Health Insurance Shopper 2010-2011
eHealthInsurance’s National Consumer Survey of Individual & Family Insurance Shoppers’ survey asks
respondents to provide demographic information including sex, education, marital status, age, and
employment status. The survey also asks whether respondents currently have health insurance and how
soon they hope to have new health insurance coverage in place. In the 2010-2011 survey period , the
average shopper is:
• Female (62.4%) more often than male
• College educated (67.4%)
• Married (52.6%)
• Between the ages of 45 and 64 (56.7%)
• Nearly seven in ten (65.2%) report being employed either full or part-time
• Nearly three in four (74.2%) indicate that they need health insurance coverage under a new plan to
begin within 30 days
Female 62.4% 65.2% Employed
Full-Time
or Part-Time
College 67.4% 24.5% Self-Employed
Educated
Married 52.6% 74.2% Need Coverage
Within 30 Days
34.1%
56.7% Currently
45 - 64 Uninsured
Years of Age
By comparing shopper demographics in the 2010-2011 survey period to responses from the 2009-2010
period, eHealthInsurance found the following:
Women are increasingly more likely than men to shop for health insurance
• Women accounted for 62.4% of shoppers during the 2010-2011 period, compared to 59.7% the year
before
Fewer married people and more single people are shopping for health insurance
• In the 2010-2011 period, 52.6% of respondents were married and 33.6% were single, compared to
55.4% and 30%, respectively, in 2009-2010
Fewer young adults and more older adults are shopping for health insurance
• 4.6% of survey respondents were between the ages of 18 and 24 in 2010-2011, compared to 8.0%
the year prior
• The percentage of respondents in the 55-64 age range increased from 28.2%
to 38.7%
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5. Portrait of the Uninsured Individual & Family Health Insurance Shopper 2010-2011
The survey also provides an in-depth look at consumer demographics for the subset of shoppers who
identify themselves as currently ‘uninsured.’ Among the uninsured:
• A substantial majority of respondents are female (63.9%)
• Most are college educated (62.7%)
• Most of the uninsured are employed full or part-time (64.2%)
63.9% 49.3% 45-64
Female
Years of Age
College 62.7% 64.2% Employed
Educated Full-Time
or Part-Time
Married 47.4% 26.6% Unemployed
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6. Survey Highlights
Insurance Status
Survey respondents were asked to state whether or not they currently have health insurance, and if so,
through what source they obtain their coverage. In the 2010-2011 survey period, 34.1% report being
uninsured, substantially higher than the overall uninsured population in the United States in 2011 (reported
by Gallup as 16.6%2). Persons identifying themselves as currently uninsured made up the largest single
block of consumers when sorted by insurance status. Additionally:
• More than half (57.1%) of respondents between ages 18-24 report being uninsured
• More than four in ten (44.4%) of those between ages 25-34 report being uninsured
• However, more than three in ten (33.8%) report being currently insured through an
employer-sponsored plan or through COBRA
100%
Insured through employer
17.6% (or the employer of a family member)
75% 16.2% COBRA plan
Surveyed Population
Private market
30.5% (not through employer or prior employer)
50%
State or Federal Program
1.6% (Medicare, Medicaid, etc.)
25%
34.1% Uninsured
0%
Insurance Provider
When comparing results year over year, the survey reveals a modest decrease in the number of shoppers
who report having health insurance through an employer, and a modest increase in the number of shoppers
reporting that they currently have COBRA health insurance.
• In the 2010-2011 period, 17.6% of respondents indicated that they currently have health insurance
through an employer, down from 19.9% in the 2009-2010 period
• Over 16% of 2010-2011 shoppers describe themselves as currently covered by a COBRA plan, up from
13.6% a year prior
– September 2009 - February 2010 Survey Results – September 2010 - February 2011 Survey Results
Uninsured Private Insurance Private Insurance COBRA Plan Medicare, Medicaid,
(Not Through (Through an or Other Gov’t
an Employer) Employer) Program
40% 1.2%
1.6%
35.3%
34.1%
30%
30.5%
28.9%
Percentage
2.3%
20% 2.6%
19.9%
17.6%
16.2%
13.6%
10% 0.7%
2.3%
1.6%
0%
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7. Employment Status
Most Americans who have health insurance get their coverage as a bene t of employment. As businesses
struggle with a tough economy and increasing health care costs, many are passing a greater portion of
those health insurance expenses on to employees3. Under the burden of increased expenses, some may
cease providing employee coverage altogether. Consumers may turn to the individual & family health
insurance market as a result of increased cost-sharing and loss of employer-based coverage.
• In the 2010-2011 survey period, more than six in ten survey respondents (65%) indicated they were
currently employed full or part-time, a decrease of 3.2% compared to the year prior
• More than two in ten (23%) reported being currently unemployed, a 4.2% increase compared to the
2009-2010 survey period
– September 2009 - February 2010 Survey Results – September 2010 - February 2011 Survey Results
Employed Employed Retired Unemployed or
(Full-Time) (Part-Time) Not Employed
60%
3.2%
48.4%
45%
45.2%
Percentage
30% 4.2%
0.5%
23.1%
1.4%
20.0%
19.5%
18.9%
15%
13.2%
11.8%
0%
The survey asked employed respondents to describe their employment in terms of the size of the rm for
which they work. The results describe a slight decrease in the number of self-employed and small business
workers, and a 4.2% increase in the number of respondents working for medium-sized businesses - defined
as companies employing between 20 and 500 persons.
• Nearly one in four (24.5%) of the 2010-2011 survey respondents report being “self-employed”
• More than eight in ten (84%) of the 2010-2011 respondents who identified themselves as
self-employed were between the ages 35 and 64
• More than three in ten 2010-2011 respondents (33.8%) report working for a small business
• 73% of respondents working for a small business in 2010-2011 are between the ages of 25 and 54
– September 2009 - February 2010 Survey Results – September 2010 - February 2011 Survey Results
Self-Employed Large Company Medium-Size Small Business
(e.g. Contractor/ (500+ Employees) Business (Less than 20
Freelancer) (20-500 Employees) Employees)
40%
1.4%
34.4%
33.8%
30% 1.5%
4.2%
26.0%
Percentage
24.8%
24.5%
23.2%
0.4%
20%
16.9%
16.5%
10%
0%
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8. Reasons for Shopping – and the End Consumer
The survey asked respondents to describe why they are currently shopping for individual & family health
insurance, allowing them to list multiple reasons. It also asked them whether they are shopping for
themselves or on behalf of another person.
• Over half of the 2010-2011 respondents (52.1%) indicated that rate increases or the need for more
a ordable coverage spurred them to shop for a new plan
• More than two in ten 2010-2011 respondents (22.3%) cite the impending loss of their current coverage
as a reason to shop
– September 2009 - February 2010 Survey Results – September 2010 - February 2011 Survey Results
Looking for Rate Increase Looking for Benefit Change Unhappy with Current Coverage Looking for Other
Cheaper on Current Plan Better Benefits on Current Plan Current Health Ends Soon Someone Who
Alternative Insurance is Uninsured
to Current Company
Insurance
40%
0.2%
34.9%
34.7%
30%
1.1%
Percentage
1.8%
23.4%
22.3%
20% 0.0% 1.0%
21.0%
19.2%
0.2%
17.2%
17.2%
16.8%
15.8%
13.0%
0.9%
12.8%
10% 0.5%
2.0%
2.9%
6.0%
5.5%
0%
NOTES:
1
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 2010: http://k .org/kaiserpolls/upload/8077-R.pdf
2
Source: http://www.gallup.com/poll/148079/Employer-Based-Health-Insurance-Declines-Further.aspx
3
Kaiser Family Foundation 2010 Employer Health Bene ts 2010 Annual Survey:
http://ehbs.k .org/
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9. Methodology
Survey Methodology
The results of this ongoing survey were compiled by online poll. The survey was sent by email to consumers
who contacted the eHealthInsurance Customer Care Center by telephone and who provided an email
address. Participation in the survey is voluntary and so self-selection bias may be present in the results.
Survey results considered in this report were compiled between September 2010 and February 2011. For
the purposes of year-over-year comparison, responses to the same questions were also compiled from data
gathered a year earlier, between September 2009 and February 2010. Information released in this report
was compiled from a total of 2104 respondents (out of 33,887 surveys sent) in the September 2010-February
2011 period, and 1573 respondents (out of 26,192 surveys sent) in the September 2009-February 2010 time
period. Given the nature of this survey, a margin of sampling error for all respondents is not readily available.
For more information, please contact:
Nate Purpura Brian Mast
eHealth, Inc. eHealth, Inc.
650-210-3115 - office 650- 210-3149 - office
nate.purpura@ehealth.com brian.mast@ehealthinsurance.com
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