Enrollment And Satisfaction Levels Remain Low In Consumer-Driven Health Plans, Survey Finds

Enrollment in consumer-driven plans among privately insured U.S. residents is low, and satisfaction with the plans continues to lag, according to a report released Thursday by the Employee Benefit Research Institute and the Commonwealth Fund, the Denver Post reports. The survey queried 3,158 privately insured U.S. residents ages 21 to 64 (Shanley, Denver Post, 12/7). For the survey, a high-deductible plan was defined as having a deductible of $1,000 for individuals or $2,000 for families (Blinkhorn, CQ HealthBeat, 12/7). The survey found that 1% of privately insured adults were enrolled in high-deductible plans with tax-exempt health savings accounts, about the same level as last year. The report also found that 7% of privately insured adults, or 8.5 million people, were enrolled in high-deductible, low-premium plans but had not signed up for tax-exempt HSAs, compared with 9% of adults last year (Congress Daily, 12/7). Adults who qualified for HSAs but did not have them usually could not afford to contribute to the accounts, according to the report (Von Bergen, Philadelphia Inquirer, 12/8). While participants in high-deductible plans were more aware of health expenditures than people in more comprehensive plans, they also were more likely to skip doctors appointments or delay filling prescriptions, according to the report. The survey also found that 20% of U.S. residents reported being familiar with high-deductible plans (CQ HealthBeat, 12/7). The report concluded, "Despite the expectations of some policymakers that the lower premiums and tax benefits of consumer-driven health plans would substantially reduce the number of people without health insurance, adults in these plans were no more likely to have been uninsured before enrolling in their plans" (Denver Post, 12/7).

Comments
Dallas Salisbury, EBRI president and CEO, said, "It will be interesting to see if continually rising health care costs prompt more workers to conclude that the trade-off of lower premiums for higher deductibles, and potentially higher out-of-pocket costs, is worth it." Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund, said that a solution to the high number of uninsured U.S. residents "will have to be a mix of public and private" (CQ HealthBeat, 12/7).

The report is available online. Note: You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the report.

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