The Open Enrollment Survey of the Aflac WorkForces Report, an online survey of 2,220 U.S. adults ages 18 and older, showed that 76 percent of American workers admit to making mistakes regarding their benefits decisions. Forty-two percent of workers also said that they have lost money each year from insurance benefits mistakes.
The study uncovers the main ways Americans make these costly errors with insurance benefits and reveal the impact on Americans' concerns about the effect unexpected costs are having on their lifestyles.
The most common costly mistakes include not employing available benefit coverage such as vision, dental or voluntary, choosing the improper coverage and putting too little in an adjustable spending account.
Results of paying out-of-pocket medical costs include:
- 65 percent have had to make sacrifices, including cutting back on social activities (40 percent), luxury items (34 percent), purchasing gifts (29 percent) and taking a vacation (28 percent)
- 21 percent of workers have taken on more hours at work and created a strict household budget
- 19 percent have increased the use of credit cards or line of credit.
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