Health insurance is a plan you pay for that helps cover the cost of medical care, like doctor visits, hospital stays, and medicine. It helps you spend less money by sharing the costs, but you might still pay some fees, like co-pays or deductibles. The resources in this guide help users to understand their choices or ways to boost the services they already have.
This guide is based off the landmark article: Vardell, E. (2024). Trends in health insurance literacy and consumer health resources. Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 43(4), 306-315. https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2024.2405441
Vardell, E. (2024). Trends in health insurance literacy and consumer health resources. Medical Reference Services Quarterly, 43(4), 306-315. https://doi.org/10.1080/02763869.2024.2405441
Kim, J., Braun, B., & Williams, A. D. (2013). Understanding health insurance literacy: A literature review. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 42(1), 3-13. https://doi.org/10.1111/fcsr.12034
HealthCare.gov is the official website for the United States Health Insurance Marketplace. It allows individuals who don’t get health insurance through their employers or other sources to sign up for coverage.
Insuring Good Health is a website created as part of the community-based participatory research project Insure Detroit. It uses superhero characters and a comic book style to explain health insurance topics, including affordable options, how to use insurance, the enrollment process, and more. The site is available in Spanish and Arabic and includes short videos to highlight key ideas. For a more in-depth overview, refer to a previous Online Updates column in this journal.
My Health, My Voice is a valuable resource designed to help people navigate and use their health insurance
. Originally created to meet the needs of newly-insured women struggling to understand their coverage, it works with a diverse audience and is available in Spanish and English, with several print-ready resources.