By Laura
It’s that time of year again when Open Enrollment begins. Mandatory Open Enrollment meetings to educate employees on a health care plan no one understands are scheduled during company time.
No one wants to attend except a handful of malcontents who have a bone to pick. “My claim wasn’t paid right, I had to pay a deductible! Why do we have such a crappy plan!” screams Mary on the front row.
“Mary, you were at last year’s Open Enrollment meeting. We spent the better part of an hour explaining what a deductible is and why you have to pay it before benefits begin. Don’t you remember that?” said Laura, the more than patient HR lady.
“Are you out of your mind lady! That’s not what we were told! Besides, that was a year ago. How do you expect me to remember things like that!” retorted Mary in an increasingly agitated tone.
Mary is right. Hermann Ebbinghaus did a memory curve study back in the 1800’s that still holds true today. He discovered that we forget 75% within 24 hours and in 30 days we forget 90%. Of the 10% we remember half is wrong.
Compounding the Ebbinghaus effect are statistics that indicate human attention spans are worse than goldfish. Mary’s average attention span is 8.25 seconds compared to 9 seconds for George, her pet goldfish.
The truth is no one understands what insurance covers until they have a loss. That’s when the learning process is most effective. After her loss Mary, now and forever more, understands for the first time she is responsible for a deductible she didn’t remember she had before.
