Magnetic Tech: What Insurance Has Been Missing
Image generated with Midjourney.
If you’ve made your career in insurance (or another highly regulated industry), you may have resigned yourself to the idea that those aesthetic, user-friendly digital experiences you see in the best consumer apps aren’t for you. Maybe you think your domain is the action behind the scenes: the workflows, the data, the integrations.
All of those things matter deeply and can be the source of great improvements. But you (and your members and employer groups) also deserve an interface that feels modern, innovative, and above all, full of energetic compassion—just like your customer service team is in real life.
There is a surprising trio of outcomes when you focus on improving the experience in insurance and other high-stakes industries:
Reducing stress
Improving trust in the brand
Increasing the member’s own confidence which leads to better decision making
This isn’t just fluff. The effort you put into the interface sends members a signal that you care about them, and it reflects positively on the employers as well. And that matters. The 2025 JD Power Commercial Health Plan study found that 20% of employers cite low employee satisfaction as a top reason to switch health plans, saying, “Plans that invest in better engagement, education and service stand to gain both members and employer clients.” (1) A better digital experience (especially a mobile app) can do all of those things—and do them well. As an employer, I can tell you we always want to provide benefits that come with a smooth, modern user experience.
Making high-stress moments less stressful for insurance members
More than two thirds of adults report feeling stress about the cost of their health insurance. (2) As a visionary, you probably know in your gut that it's harmful—and if you can do something to ease it, you’ll be making a significant impact. You can also check this against what you know of human nature. What happens when you’re stressed out and encounter something mildly inconvenient?
Let’s say, for example, you’re worried about your child’s health. You’ve been trying to get an important appointment scheduled, and one of the companies involved requires you to reset your password when you’re already stressed, and now the password reset email isn’t arriving. You’re checking your inbox, getting more and more frantic until finally, you explode.
What would’ve been an irritation under normal circumstances becomes a full-blown drop-the-coffee meltdown, casting a shadow over your entire day. As a brand, you don’t want to be the cause of rage moments like this.
For those who need an ROI-based reason to work on this, there are plenty of statistics on stress, health costs, and outcomes. Stress is correlated with a higher chance of healthcare needs and costs. Even a moderate increase in stress is associated with a 39% greater chance of incurring healthcare costs. (3) Financial stress, in particular, is associated with worse health outcomes, according to a University of Houston study. (4)
I’ve heard people say things like, “What can we do? We can’t change the fact that it costs what it does.” And that’s probably true—at least in the near term. Costs are largely out of any one insurer’s control in the moment. But interestingly, that same University of Houston study also found that it’s possible to soften the effects of that stress—and the answer may not be what you think.
They looked at the effects of three kinds of support: having someone to talk to, feelings of belonging, and direct tangible support (aid programs). The two “soft” mechanisms—having someone to talk to and feeling like you belong—led to better health outcomes than the tangible aid. That’s right: making people feel better emotionally was most effective at improving their health outcomes. (4)
The good news is that this is also more easily achievable for most organizations. Your first thought is probably that your customer service team already does this—and that’s important. But what if you could give that same relief to those who are reluctant to contact customer service? Even for those who do reach out, what if you could start the feeling of support before they pick up the phone—so instead of entering a customer service call frustrated, they arrive hopeful?
A thoughtful digital experience (app or website, but especially apps) can do this.
People need to feel connection and trust with your organization
Not only is it helpful to comfort the stress members inherently feel around their insurance, it’s also a great opportunity to build trust in the organization. Brand trust is on the decline—Qualtrics reports a dip in trust across industries from 2023 to 2024, (5) and the Edelman Trust Barometer reports that 71% of consumers agree with the statement, “I trust brands less than I did a year ago.” (6)
Forrester’s Consumer Study 2025 found that empathy and connection drive consumer loyalty in an increasingly disillusioned environment, but consumer impressions of digital experiences have dropped to a three-year low. (7)
Consumers are smart. They know if there has been care put into their experience. As more brands skimp on experience, those who invest in one that brings emotional connection have an opportunity to stand out and build loyalty. Brands like Warby Parker have excelled by making their app and web experiences feel smooth, human, and compassionate. They didn’t do this by aligning with the status quo set by their competitors. They did it by dramatically raising the bar.
The research backs this up. Forrester’s 2024/2025 reports highlight that brands embedding empathy into digital experiences—such as apps and websites—build stronger emotional connections, which are the biggest driver of loyalty. Brands that create emotional attachment outperform competitors in sales growth by 85% and are much more likely to be chosen repeatedly by loyal customers. (8)
People need to feel confident in their own knowledge and agency
While reducing member stress and improving trust in the organization are valuable benefits of investing in a connected digital experience, one of the surprise benefits is increasing members’ feelings of capability.
Consumers often experience a crisis of confidence when they have their first major insurance event. That’s because most people are initially overconfident in their insurance knowledge. When they encounter something they don’t understand, they feel stupid or incompetent—and it’s often at a time when they’re already stressed about something else (such as finances or their health).
Poor confidence in their own abilities leads to tangible problems as well. Those who rate themselves as having a fair or poor understanding of insurance are three times more likely to have trouble paying bills. (9)
There’s even more. Members who understand their out-of-pocket costs and out-of-network coverage have higher satisfaction and fewer issues such as denials and inaccessible care. Conversely, among members who say they do not completely understand their out-of-network benefits, 48% had a claim denied, and 56% said their choice of network doctors was not available. (10)
Denials and the feeling of not having choice cause peak negative moments among members. While they may not be the insurance company’s “fault,” reducing how often they occur is a win for both the member and the organization. That requires education—the kind members may not seek out on their own because, thanks to the overconfidence factor, by the time they need it, it’s too late.
The solution lies in introducing opportunities for lightweight, “accidental learning” while accomplishing everyday tasks (it’s accidental from the member’s perspective, but intentional from ours). Apps, due to their prevalence and ease of access, are the perfect vehicle for targeted micro-education campaigns.
One final word
When people believe they understand their resources and have agency in their own lives, they feel empowered and make better decisions. I’m constantly amazed and pleased by how much of our work comes back to the same themes: make people feel seen, supported, and more confident in themselves.
And at the core of it, isn’t that what insurance is for? To make people feel safe. Some of that comes from the coverage itself, but a lot of it comes from the ability to trust their own choices and see themselves as the hero of their own life. If an insurance company’s digital presence can help them get there, everyone wins.
Notes
https://www.jdpower.com/business/press-releases/2025-us-commercial-member-health-plan-study
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00787-019-01441-2
https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/global-consumer-trends/
https://www.edelman.com/sites/g/files/aatuss191/files/2025-01/2025%20Edelman%20Trust%20Barometer%20Global%20Report_01.23.25.pdf
https://www.telusdigital.com/insights/customer-experience/article/empathy-in-cx
https://www.jdpower.com/business/press-releases/2025-us-commercial-member-health-plan-study