The statistics are starting to come in and they aren’t pretty; Consumer directed health plans’ growth is all but stalled. Despite advocates claims to the contrary, employers are just not buying into CDHPs.
According to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, 19% of people with a choice of CDHPs or traditional forms of coverage choose CDHPs. And most of those folks (71% to be precise) don’t put any money into their accounts.
The study by the Kaiser Family Foundation focused on employers with more than three workers, and excluded dependents. Enrollment in CDHP plans in this study group was 2.7 million in 2006, up from 2.4 million in 2005. (We’ve explored the reasons for slow and low adoption of CDHPs here previously.)
The Wall Street Journal noted that less than 1% of Federal employees have joined these plans; while 50,000 members sounds like a lot, that’s out of a total population of eight million.
CDHPs can be fixed. But plan sponsors (that means employers) will have to force insurers to make meaningful changes…insurers don’t seem able to figure out how to fix CDHPs on their own.
The fix isn’t complicated –
1. get rid of the high deductible and replace it with a copay, keeping the high out of pocket limit.
2. index the out of pocket limit to income, so people have a financial commitment that is meaningful without being a financial killer.
3. cover preventive services and maintenance meds at very low copay.
Consumerism has a role to play in solving the health care crisis. Whether that role is a brief cameo or something more enduring depends on insurers’ ability to evolve and improve the plans’ basic design.
I have noted other reports, I think one from Kaiser, which reported CDHP plan premiums rising at about the rate of other plan types, and another study which showed extremely high CDHP household financial exposures, over tens of thousands of dollars, for complicated deliveries.
It seems as if the “fix” is Comprehensive Major Medical. Did we not rail upon that in the past?
Unfortunately, we (consumers) don’t always make good decisions-fast food over healthy food-sedintary activities over fitness. Until we (consumers) choose healthy lifestyles over medications and surgeries, healthcare is always going to be expensive. The “fix” is really simple-eat well, exercise regularly, build a relationship with your physician and follow basic preventive guidelines…ok maybe its not that simple!
SST
“ok maybe its not that simple!”
Aubrey, you are correct. You suggest a true demand-management strategy, which in health care is not only more effective but more humane than any of the supply-management strategies that have been tried so far.
It is in each person’s own power to practice good health habits.
But a simple solution may still be difficult to achieve. IMO, our history over the last 40-50 years of wretched public education, continuous erosion of families, contempt for individual responsibility, and rejection of self-discipline, are coming home to roost.
I think the solution you suggest to health care costs is simple, but is blocked by these other, perhaps intractable, factors. I suppose these factors will dominate at least until the 2040’s – as the the majority of boomers die off.
Meanwhile we live in Woodstock Nation. Let us lift our glasses.
Hello.
im doing a project on consumer directed healthcare,or is it healthcare directed consumer.i dont know what it is..yikes!but i just need to know what it is and a tad about it and that’d be awesome.and if u know any good websites for it please tell me,because i have to write a speech on it.so please email me at hazeleyes71207@bellsouth.net