Millennials: Digital Natives Disrupting Healthcare

As they overtake Baby Boomers as the largest generation in the United States, Millennials continue to garner a great deal of attention from the media, market researchers, and healthcare executives. They represent a massive working, spending, and voting block with far-reaching economic and public policy implications. They are the first generation of digital natives, with boundless information and consumer power at their fingertips. They are not beholden to their predecessors in how they exercise their consumer power, especially when it comes to healthcare.

Millennials: Digital Natives Disrupting Healthcare, a research report based on a 2018 consumer health care survey, illuminates the pressures they face that impact their healthcare decisions, their access to healthcare, their perception of the U.S. healthcare system, and their current state of health. The research report offers clear trend analysis and actionable insights for the general public. It is accompanied by a summarized research brief.

Compared with Generation X and Baby Boomers, the research finds that Millennials:

• Have less insurance, less disposable income, and less ability to afford prescription drugs
• Visit a doctor’s office less frequently
• Are more likely to rely on digital sources of health information than personal contacts
• Are interested in workplace wellness and healthy workplace food options
• Are more likely to visit a mental health professional
• Are more likely to save for healthcare expenses and more aware of potential changes to health policy