Dr. Bonnie Braun (center) and Lynn Little (left) work with a client to explain the details of the Smart Choice program.
With the federal government’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in place, more health insurance options can sometimes mean more confusion. With this in mind, a team from the University of Maryland Extension has developed a Smart Choice program to increase consumers’ health insurance literacy and clarify their choices.
The free Smart Choice workbook guides consumers through analyses of their health insurance costs, offers basic budgeting tips for determining how much consumers can afford to spend on health insurance and includes a section to compare possible plans in side-by-side columns. The program also offers workshops in which experts guide consumers through the process of using the workbook.
Bonnie Braun, a family science professor and specialist at the Extension, co-led the team that developed Smart Choice along with Extension educator Lynn Little. Braun said because people are often uncomfortable or confused when making decisions about health insurance, the program is a way to simplify the process of choosing a plan.
“Research shows that people don’t know how to make a choice, or a smart choice,” Braun said.
As part of the Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare, many students at this university are eligible for coverage under their parents’ health insurance plans until they are 26 years old. But others, including older students, now must abide by the law’s health insurance mandate or pay a fine.
BreAnna Davis, a family science doctoral student and the Graduate Student Government’s student affairs vice president, said she was able to get coverage under her father’s plan because of the Affordable Care Act, but after turning 26 this year, she must now look for other options.
As a graduate assistant, she is eligible for the university’s employee health insurance, but she plans to determine whether there’s a better option, using the Smart Choice workbook as a guide.
“I’m glad they’re offering it,” Davis said. “It’s just a matter of who’s able to access it, who’s aware of it.”
Braun’s team worked with the American Institutes for Research to determine measures of health insurance literacy — which Braun defined as the ability to get information, understand it and make use of it and feel confident you made a smart choice for your family’s health and finances.
The team is planning to eventually develop specialized programs for specific segments of the population, such as people who are about to retire and people between the ages of 18 and 26, Braun said.
“The basic core [of the program] will remain the same,” she said.
For students who are between health insurance plans, such as graduate student Madeline Miskie, the Smart Choice program is an appealing option.
While she searches for a new health insurance plan, Miskie said she plans to exercise, eat nutritious food and do yoga to keep herself healthy — but she said that is not a long-term solution.
“[The Smart Choice workbook] sounds like something that would be really, really good for me,” Miskie said. “I am a grad student. I’m not making the salary that I want to make as a professional, and budgeting is essential.”
The Smart Choice can be found on the University of Maryland Extension website.
