Millennials and Healthcare — What Are They Looking For?

Jill GouletEmployee Benefits, Health Insurance

As the fastest-growing generational group, millennials (people born between the mid-1980s and the turn of the century) are a vital part of a strong workforce. If you want to attract millennials to your business, it’s important to understand what they need and more importantly, what they want.

In addition to a good salary and a positive work environment, the benefit millennials are most interested in is healthcare. In fact, since the Affordable Care Act came into force, the number of uninsured millennials has fallen from 23% to just 11%. Insured millennials are better for your business too — Insured millennials are more likely to report being in good or excellent health (79%) than uninsured millennials (62%).

With health insurance being front and center, and increasing options for employment, how do you attract and retain the best young talent? An important part is providing the right health benefits. Let’s explore a few options.

The health services millennials are most interested in

It’s important to provide health insurance plans to cover the main concerns millennials have about their health, this includes:

  • Accident and emergency coverage — Catastrophe can strike at any time. Millennials are less concerned with insurance against long-term, chronic illnesses than they are against accidents and other critical emergencies. A health plan that has good coverage for emergency room visits and treating acute conditions fits in well with their needs.
  • Doctor visits — Reasonable copay amounts for doctor and specialist visits rank highly with millennials.
  • Immunizations and wellness — Staying healthy is near the top of the millennial’s agenda. This includes vaccination for flu and human papillomavirus vaccine (HPV). wellness programs also play a part in helping to keep people healthy and reduce stress.
  • Alcohol and depression screening and counselling — Depression, anxiety and other mental illness affects a disproportionate number of young people. Access to therapy, treatment, and counsellors is critically important.
  • Sexual and reproductive health — Contraception, birth control, and sexual health are vital to millennials. Pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding support, and infant care are also high on the agenda for millennials wanting to start families.

 Keeping health premium costs down for millennials

Another important consideration is the cost of premiums, and the trend here is clear — Millennials much prefer low-premium, high-deductible health plans. For many millennials, cost is the most important factor when it comes to health insurance. In fact, two thirds of them said a premium of more than $200 a month is unaffordable. Clearly, with a premium that low, high-deductible plans are really the only choice.

Another option is to give millennials various options in terms of their overall benefits package — Perhaps they can trade off some vacation days for a lower insurance premium?

Addressing other health concerns

It’s not just premiums and coverage that are important to millennials. Many are concerned that being ill or injured for an extended period of time would mean they would get fired. Make sure you have clear employment policies in place that address these concerns — What are implications for someone’s employment if they are unable to work for the medium or long-term?

Another benefit you can offer is making it easier for millennials to transfer off of their family health plan. Children can stay on their parent’s plan until they’re 26 years old, so providing a convenient and easy way to switch will definitely help.

Make it clear that the Affordable Care Act requires everyone to be insured by law. Being uninsured just isn’t an option unless they want to pay yearly fines when they report their taxes. Clearly explain the benefits of health insurance and make it easy for people to start paying their premiums and enjoying their coverage.

Jill Goulet
Risk Management Consultant
jgoulet@srfm.com

Sinclair 7-22-15-14