Venus Williams just came back from a 16-month break from professional tennis. But she didn’t return because she missed playing — rather, she missed her health insurance. “I had to come back for the insurance,” Williams, 45, said this week after beating Peyton Stearns — 22 years her junior — at the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington, D.C.

Champion tennis player Venus Williams says she’s coming out of retirement because she needs health insurance, but industry experts say her example shows how little Americans understand their health care options.