Journal of Health Economics
Vol. 32, Issue 5, Pages 850-862
September 2013
Abstract
We report results from two surveys
of representative samples of Americans with private health insurance.
The first examines how well Americans understand, and believe they
understand, traditional health insurance coverage. The second examines
whether those insured under a simplified all-copay insurance plan will
be more likely to engage in cost-reducing behaviors relative to those
insured under a traditional plan with deductibles and coinsurance, and
measures consumer preferences between the two plans. The surveys
provide strong evidence that consumers do not understand traditional
plans and would better understand a simplified plan, but weaker
evidence that a simplified plan would have strong appeal to consumers
or change their healthcare choices.
Citation
George Loewenstein, Joelle Y. Friedman, Barbara McGill, Sarah Ahmad, Suzanne Linck, Stacey Sinkula, John Beshears, James J. Choi, Jonathan Kolstad, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian, John A. List, and Kevin G. Volpp. "Consumers’ Misunderstanding of Health Insurance." Journal of Health Economics 32.5 (September 2013): 850-862.