eHealth Insights: Medicare Beneficiaries Increasingly Shopping Online for Insurance Products

PR Newswire

SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 2, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today eHealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: EHTH) (eHealth.com) released a report highlighting an increase in online enrollments among its Medicare customers. The report also shows more Medicare customers are using online shopping tools, and that a strong majority own smartphones.

Highlights from the report:

Increasing online Medicare insurance enrollments: 22 percent of all Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplement enrollments at eHealth in the fourth quarter of 2018 occurred online, compared to 13 percent in the fourth quarter of 2017 – a year-over-year increase of 69 percent.
Growing use of online shopping comparison tools: 30 percent of eHealth customers selecting Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug plans used the company's prescription drug coverage comparison tool to see which plan best fit their personal medication needs, compared to 18 percent the year before – a year-over-year increase of 67 percent. The average potential savings identified by tool users was $531 per year.
Most Medicare beneficiaries use mobile technology: Nearly 8 in 10 (79 percent) of respondents to a survey of eHealth Medicare customers said they owned a smartphone; among those age 80 and older, 56 percent own smartphones. By comparison, a Pew report on seniors found that only 18 percent of people age 65 and older owned smartphones in 2013.

"Seniors are increasingly comfortable with shopping online and with technology in general," said eHealth CEO Scott Flanders. "It's as important as ever that today's Medicare beneficiaries have access to personal help and advice from licensed agents, but more of today's Medicare beneficiaries want to use online comparison tools to select and enroll in Medicare insurance products. We're excited to be leading the way in the transformation of the Medicare market."

For more information, read the full report.

About eHealth
eHealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: EHTH) owns eHealth.com, a leading private online health insurance exchange where individuals, families and small businesses can compare health insurance products from brand-name insurers side by side and purchase and enroll in coverage online and over the phone. eHealth offers thousands of individual, family and small business health plans underwritten by many of the nation's leading health insurance companies. eHealth (through its subsidiaries) is licensed to sell health insurance in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. eHealth also offers educational resources, exceptional telephonic support, and powerful online and pharmacy-based tools to help Medicare beneficiaries navigate Medicare health insurance options, choose the right plan and enroll in select plans online or over the phone through Medicare.com (www.Medicare.com), eHealthMedicare.com (www.eHealthMedicare.com), GoMedigap (www.goMedigap.com) and PlanPrescriber.com (www.PlanPrescriber.com).