Health insurance literacy is critical to a person’s ability to access and use the care they need to stay healthy. Recognizing that young people are at a higher risk for having inadequate health insurance literacy, the UAMS Center for Health Literacy identified a gap in educational materials tailored to young adults. To address this need, CHL developed an interactive online learning module to equip young adults to better understand and use their health insurance.
As part of the development process, the CHL team worked with subject matter experts and partners. As a result, we created module content that uses plain language best practices and focuses on information identified by potential users as essential for understanding and using health insurance. Our team then worked with design partners from the University of North Texas Health Science Center (UNTHSC) to develop the interactive, online module and informative videos for each lesson.
After extensive testing with potential users from the target audience, we adapted the module to reflect their suggested changes to make the tool more understandable and actionable. The final product is a modern, easy-to-use online tool that helps young adults and others learn how to use their health insurance in about 30 minutes.
We disseminated this free resource to college faculty to share with young people on college campuses and shared it with other health literacy leaders to use in their work with various communities. Over 90% of users who took the end-of-module evaluations reported that their understanding of health insurance broadly improved. Additionally, we presented the module and its impact at the Health Literacy Collaborative Summit.
We now offer this free, valuable tool on our website and plan to continue adapting and promoting it for more audiences in the future.