HealthPocket: High Public Concern Over Privacy and Security Protections on Affordable Care Act Exchanges

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sept. 25, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Given the requirement to determine eligibility for premium subsidies and out-of-pocket cost reductions, the new health insurance exchanges will request sensitive personal information such as social security number, address, date of birth, income, and whether the individual has any physical, mental, or emotional health conditions limiting activities of daily life. This personal data will not only be accessible by the exchanges' software systems but portions of this personal data will be exposed to thousands of people ranging from internal exchange staff to third parties assisting people with the exchanges' application and subsidy determination processes.

Americans are as concerned about privacy protections on the new Obamacare health insurance exchanges as they are about data security according to two new nationwide surveys released by HealthPocket. With respect to the potential for government privacy violations, 53% of survey respondents were not confident that personal information requested within Obamacare insurance marketplaces (i.e. exchanges) would be treated as private and not inappropriately shared with other government agencies. In a separate survey, 57% of respondents were not confident that personal information requested within the marketplaces would be safe from hacking and other misuse.

"There is a high level of public skepticism regarding the privacy and data security safeguards for the government exchanges launching next week," said Kev Coleman, Head of Research & Data at HealthPocket. "The consistency in the results between HealthPocket's privacy survey and our separate data security survey was striking. To address these public concerns and attract consumers to the exchanges, the government must communicate a compelling case that the security and privacy measures associated with the exchanges will be successful. The advantage for the government is that there is already precedent regarding successful data security and privacy protection for analogous personal information within the Medicare program."

The two nationwide InfoPoll surveys were conducted September 16, 2013 through September 19, 2013 and combined for 1,902 respondents. The methodology to acquire survey respondents who approximate national statistics on age, gender, and region was performed by technology administered by Google. See HealthPocket's healthcare research to review the full findings of the surveys and other related studies.

HealthPocket.com is a free website that compares and ranks all health insurance plans available to an individual, family, or small business to allow consumers to make their best health plan decision and reduce their out of pocket costs. HealthPocket uses only objective data from government, non-profit, and private sources that carry no conditions that might restrict the site from serving as an unbiased resource. The founders of HealthPocket.com spent decades pioneering internet-based access to health insurance information and created HealthPocket to offer an online resource to positively change how people buy and use healthcare in the U.S. Learn more at www.HealthPocket.com.

For further information, please contact Emily Cashel with Shirley & Banister Public Affairs at (703) 739-5920 or (800) 536-5920, or [email protected].

SOURCE HealthPocket