Audit receipt: your health plan, in very simple words

Source: UnitedHealthcare Choice Plus certificate of coverage (117-page specimen) · register: very simple (muy sencillo) · language: EN · processed 2026-08-05

Which version this is

This is the very-simple version, for a grade-school reader. It uses the plainest words, keeps sentences short, and gives a worked example with real dollars for every money rule. A standard plain-language version of the same plan also exists. The truth rules are identical in both: nothing is invented, exceptions ride with the rules they limit, and the "your plan must agree you need it" qualifier stays in plain sight. This register moves more detail into tap-to-open panels; it never deletes it.

SIMPLE score

Scored 0-4 per dimension by the adversarial auditor. Passing floor: 3 on every dimension.

Original vs simplified

Before = the locked Stage 1 baseline of the original 117-page certificate. After = the auditor's re-measurement of this very-simple version.

Reading level (three versions)

Three numbers each: the original certificate, then the standard plain version, then this very-simple version. Reading grade is Flesch-Kincaid; the very-simple target for health content is grade 4 or below with reading ease 80 or above. Measured on the reader-facing text; the syllable count is an estimate.

What was done for the very-simple version

• Rewrote every sentence to 12 words or fewer in the always-visible text; paragraphs to two sentences or fewer.
• Removed bare technical words from the page. Each hard word is now taught in plain words the first time ("They are called in-network"; "This first money is called your deductible").
• Told the cost as a story in three short steps, with a worked dollar example under each: a $100 visit costs you $20; a $20,000 surgery costs you $3,500.
• Turned the four cost traps into one short line each, with the real number and what it costs to skip it.
• Kept both governing truths in plain sight: your plan must agree you need the care, and an out-of-network doctor can bill you the extra.
• Kept the exceptions with their rules: some care is never covered, but breast reconstruction after cancer is covered.
• Moved the long lists, tables, appeals, special cases, and second-plan rules into tap-to-open panels, each rewritten to the same grade level.
• Kept the cost calculator; re-checked its math by hand against four cases; reworded its labels to plain words.

Reader panel

Three synthetic readers each saw only the finished page. L1 (basic reader — the match for this register): PASS, 4/4, with no unclear words in the always-visible text. L2 (middle reader): PASS, 4/4. L3 (nuance check): PASS — every displaced exception (balance billing, medical-necessity rule, breast-reconstruction exception, new-baby 60-day window and 5.5% reinstatement, age-26 and Wisconsin age-27 rules, prior-approval penalty, claim deadlines, appeals and the state contact, injury payback, second-plan coordination, ER-waived-if-admitted, free preventive care, "up to" limits) is present and reachable.

Hard words that remain (kept on purpose)

• in-network / out-of-network. Taught in plain words at first use ("They are called in-network"), then used as a short label. Kept because the reader must recognize these exact words on their own plan papers and provider lists — they drive every cost.
• deductible. Named once ("This first money is called your deductible"), then always called "the first money you pay." Kept once so the reader recognizes the word on their card.
• Official names and pointers. "UnitedHealthcare Choice Plus," "myuhc.com," "1-800-236-8517," and "(Section 7, Subrogation and Reimbursement)" and similar pointers stay as printed. They exist so the reader can point at the real document; they cannot be simplified further, and each sits next to a plain explanation of what it is for.
• A few sentences slightly over 12 words. All sit in tap-to-open detail panels, and each is either a comma list (like "TVs, phones, air conditioners...") or a sentence that carries a "(Section X)" pointer, or the one 13-word breast-reconstruction sentence kept whole so its exception is not lost. The always-visible page has no improvable over-length sentence.