89% of Americans Expect More Benefits Decision-Making Tools and Support...

…Because They Are Responsible for More of Their Health Care Costs Than Ever Before.

Yep, totally true, according to the recently released 2015 Aflac Open Enrollment Survey.

Also true?

More than half of these same people say they spend less than a half-hour researching their options…and 90% of employees say they just choose the same benefits year after year.

Why’s that? Well, maybe these other stats offer some insight: More than a third (38%) of people polled would rather clean out their email inbox, 23% would rather clean their toilet, and 18% would rather do their taxes…than research benefits options.

Put another way: nine out of ten American workers want more help choosing their benefits, because the stakes are higher than ever if they make bad decisions, BUT they don’t like struggling to figure things out, because, holy cow, figuring things out is a huge pain in the neck, so many of them just default to what they had last year because it’s less stressful that way.

(Sound familiar?)

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Also, the survey asked people to answer which kinds of benefits enrollment resources they find helpful…and whether their employer currently offers that kind of thing.

Interestingly (especially to us here at ALEX), the two resources with the biggest disparity between “think is helpful” and “is actually offered by employer”?

Interactive, online tools to help you make coverage decisions (64% said it was helpful; only 31% said their employer offered it)

AND

Summaries of previous year’s claims and expenses (66% said it was helpful; 26% said their employer offered it.)