Originally published December 27 2005
Consumer-directed health plans are a flop, according to recent survey
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Senior program officer Sara Martin of the Commonwealth Fund's Program on the Future of Health Insurance co-authored a report that revealed most people are dissatisfied with self-directed health plans.
Americans enrolled in new consumer-directed health plans are less satisfied with these plans than people who retain conventional comprehensive coverage, a new survey found.
Such findings raise concerns that the plans are causing people to forego needed care as they force more out-of-pocket costs for patients, according to the survey authors.
"Among adults who have the consumer-driven health plans, we are finding lower satisfaction with quality of care, out-of-pocket costs and a low satisfaction in their plans overall," said Sara Collins, the report's co-author and senior program officer of the Commonwealth Fund's Program on the Future of Health Insurance.
"By focusing exclusively on the demand side, incentives give disproportionate responsibility on cost control to people with health problems or lower incomes."
The survey was conducted by the nonprofit Commonwealth Fund and the Employee Benefits Research Institute and was funded by the Commonwealth Fund, with additional support from IBM Corp., Pfizer Inc., and Procter & Gamble.
Overall premiums for health insurance have increased significantly in the last five years, far outpacing gains in worker income.
"The average premium for health insurance exceeds the annual income of a minimum wage worker," said Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund.
In their search for lower cost health insurance, some employers have started adopting consumer-driven health plans, namely high-deductible health plans (HDHPs), often in tandem with health savings accounts (HSAs).
"HDHPs with or without HSAs are being designed to try and control health-care costs from the demand side and they are really quite controversial at this point," Davis said.
The majority of people with comprehensive insurance (60 percent) said they were extremely or very likely to stay with their current health plan, compared with 46 percent of people enrolled in consumer-directed health plans and 30 percent of HDHP enrollees.
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