Veterans of the Obamacare Exchanges Have Mixed Feelings about Returning

NEW YORK, Nov. 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The open enrollment period for health plans under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) begins on November 15, 2014.   However, a new survey of former participants of the healthcare exchanges by Bankrate.com (NYSE:RATE), shows that many are reluctant to participate again.  The majority of Americans (51%) who used the Obamacare health exchanges during the last enrollment period do not plan on returning to the exchange during the new enrollment season.  This is compared to 43% who state they will return.

Given the troubled rollout of the exchanges last year, former participants in the exchanges have concerns with the new enrollment period, including much higher prices for health plans (43%), too many people remaining uninsured (26%), and more technical problems with the online exchanges (21%).  These findings are consistent with an earlier Bankrate study this year.

"Households that have already used the health exchanges are just as leery about the new enrollment season as the general public and share the concerns about higher insurance rates and glitchy websites," said Bankrate.com insurance analyst Doug Whiteman.

Although the majority of respondents claimed they will not return to the exchanges, most also expressed confidence in the Obamacare marketplace, with 53% saying they are either very or somewhat confident that the exchanges will operate properly this time around, versus those who are less confident (45%).  Furthermore, just over half of participants (52%) report that they had a positive experience with the previous enrollment, compared to respondents having a bad experience (43%).

These results comprise Bankrate.com's Health Insurance Pulse, a monthly survey that tracks how Americans are feeling about health care and their personal finances. The survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International (PSRAI) and can be seen in its entirety here:
http://bankrate.com/finance/insurance/health-insurance-poll-0914.aspx

PSRAI obtained telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 588 adults living in the continental United States that had visited the health exchanges during the previous enrollment season. Telephone interviews were conducted by landline and cell phone. Interviews were done in English and Spanish by Princeton Data Source from September 25 to 28; October 2-5; October 9-12 and October 16-19, 2014. Statistical results are weighted to correct known demographic discrepancies. The margin of sampling error for the complete set of weighted data is +/- 4.7 percentage points.

About Bankrate, Inc.
Bankrate is a leading publisher, aggregator, and distributor of personal finance content on the Internet. Bankrate provides consumers with proprietary, fully researched, comprehensive, independent and objective personal finance editorial content across multiple vertical categories including mortgages, deposits, insurance, credit cards, and other categories, such as retirement, automobile loans, and taxes. The Bankrate network includes Bankrate.com, CreditCards.com and InsuranceQuotes.com, our flagship websites, and other owned and operated personal finance websites, including Caring.com, Interest.com, Bankaholic.com, Mortgage-calc.com, CreditCardGuide.com, Nationwide Card Services, CarInsuranceQuotes.com, InsureMe, CreditCards.ca, and NetQuote.com. Bankrate aggregates rate information from over 4,800 institutions on more than 300 financial products. With coverage of nearly 600 local markets in all 50 U.S. states, Bankrate generates over 172,000 distinct rate tables capturing on average over three million pieces of information daily. Bankrate develops and provides web services to over 80 co-branded websites with online partners, including some of the most trusted and frequently visited personal finance sites on the Internet such as Yahoo!, AOL, CNBC, and Bloomberg. In addition, Bankrate licenses editorial content to over 500 newspapers on a daily basis including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Boston Globe.

For more information contact:

Kayleen Yates
Senior Director, Corporate Communications
[email protected]
(917) 368-8677          

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SOURCE Bankrate, Inc.

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