Choice of Health Plan: Findings from the 2009 EBRI/MGA Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey

Abstract

This paper explores differences in choice of health plan using data from the 2009 EBRI/MGA Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey. It examines the likelihood of having a choice of plan by various demographics and work-related variables. It also examines choice by health status and health behaviors. The relationship between satisfaction with health insurance and health care and health plan choice is then explored, as is the role of type of health plan. Most employers do not offer a choice of health plan. In 2009, 86 percent of employers offering health benefits offered only one health plan; 13 percent offered two choices; and 1 percent offered three or more choices. Large firms are more likely to offer health insurance and to offer a choice of health plan than small firms. Forty-five percent of large firms offered two or more choices, whereas 13 percent of small firms did so. As a result, about one-half of covered workers had a choice of health plan, and according to the 2009 EBRI/MGA Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey, 59 percent of adults ages 21-64 with employment-based health coverage had a choice of health plan. While the percentage of individuals with traditional employment-based health benefits who have a choice of health plan was in large part unchanged since 2005 (ranging from 54 percent to 62 percent), the percentage of individuals with a consumer-driven health plan (CDHP) and a choice of health plan rose steadily between 2005 and 2009, increasing from 47 percent to 70 percent. Increasing choice of health plan is a key component of health reform advocates. The health insurance exchange is built on Alain Enthoven’s model of managed competition, which entails sponsors acting on behalf of groups of individuals to negotiate with insurers and offer participants a menu of choices among different plans. To obtain the benefits of competition requires that insurance policies be easily comparable to facilitate consumer choice, and quality measures be developed that consumers can use to make informed decisions.

The PDF for the above title, published in the February 2010 issue of EBRI Notes, also contains the fulltext of another February 2010 EBRI Notes article abstracted on SSRN: “Labor Force Participation Rates: The Population Age 55 and Older, 2008.”

Keywords: Consumer-driven health care, Employment-based benefits, Health care attitudes and opinions, Health insurance attitudes and opinions, Health insurance coverage, Health status

JEL Classification: I1, I11, J3, J32