Every year around this time, the American Customer Satisfaction Index speaks with tens of thousands of consumers nationwide, asking them about how they feel about certain industries that they interact with regularly, including banks, credit unions, investments services and health insurance – both employee benefits and individual.
In its latest analysis, consumers didn't have many good things to say about the type of coverage they're getting.
Insurance satisfaction scores 74.5
On a 100-point scale – 1 being the most negative and 100 most positive – Americans had a satisfaction level of just under 75 for the finance and insurance sector, ACSI reported. That's down 0.4 percent to a reading that is its lowest in 10 years.
Claes Fornell, ACSI chairman and founder, pointed out that no one likes to receive this type of news, neither the companies that make employee benefits coverage available, nor producers themselves.
"These are not happy times," Fornell explained. "Insurance companies are joining the troubling trend of deteriorating customer satisfaction that we've seen throughout most of the U.S. economy."
He added that because of market pressures that often force insurers to cut back on coverage in order to remain profitable, the fallout has led to a "negative effect on service and customer satisfaction."
When the Affordable Care Act was signed into law in 2010, the goal was not only to see to it that more Americans had the financial resources to pay for medical services, but also to like the coverage that they have, made possible – in large part – by affordability. While the ACA has been successful in the former, it hasn't been the case in the latter, at least not by some polling measures.
Since 2001, nearly a decade before the ACA became the law of the land, just over 58 percent of Americans say they're pleased with the cost of their health insurance. This mid-50 percent range has held relatively constant for going on 15 years now, dropping slightly to 57 percent in Gallup's most recent analysis.
Far fewer are uninsured
Where the health care law has made headway is with regards to the uninsured rate – and in a relatively short period of time. For example, in the South, the uninsured rate two years ago was north of 20 percent in several states, including Arkansas at 22.5 percent and Kentucky at 20.4 percent, Gallup reported from a separate survey. Through the first six months of 2015, the rate has dropped by over 13 percent in the Razorback State to 9.1 percent and by more than 11 percent in the Bluegrass State, bringing the uninsured level to an even 9 percent. Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington are three other states where the rate of people without coverage has fallen by double digits.
There is a penalty that comes with not having a health policy in place. For every year that an individual does not have a plan that's considered sufficient by the government, they're docked a certain percentage of their annual pay. The rate is increased the longer that person goes without coverage, a levy that's usually paid during tax filing season.
