American employees are alarmingly uninformed about important details of their insurance plans as well as employer's voluntary benefit programs, according a recent survey from Sun Life Financial.
The study included responses from 1,000 U.S. employees to explore to what degree employees understand their health insurance benefits.
Here are six findings.
1. About 54 percent of respondents said they did not know their out-of-pocket maximum and one-third did not know their deductible. About 30 percent of respondents did not know either of these amounts.
2. Respondents said they are concerned about their healthcare insurance because they do not have adequate savings (45 percent) and because they do not earn enough income to cover additional of unexpected healthcare expenses (34 percent).
3. Nearly nine in 10 employees understand that changes in their healthcare are creating coverage gaps. About 77 percent are concerned these gaps have put them at financial risk and 86 percent said the onus is on employers to offer options to help fill in coverage gaps.
4. About 70 percent of employees said they were not familiar with the term "voluntary benefits." But after the term was explained to them, 72 percent agreed it was important employers offer voluntary benefits.
5. A vast majority of respondents (94 percent) said other insurance offerings, meaning benefits other than insurance, were important factors when deciding between two job offers.
6. Employees largely reflected the spirit of consumerism in designing their benefits packages. About 87 percent said the ability to customize their benefits would help ensure they chose the ideal plan for their lifestyle.