Library: The Conversation – Choosing health insurance is so complicated, 23% of workers with only two choices picked the worse one
Executive summary :
Almost a quarter of employees faced with the choice of two employer-sponsored health care plans picked the one that left them worse off financially, even though they offered the same non-cost benefits, according to new unpublished research we conducted.
The source
Using data from a large university in the Midwest that offered to subsidise one of two health care plans, we wanted to see how hard it is for people to make the better choice when given only two options.
The plans were identical in every respect other than their costs. One plan had much higher premiums but lower out-of-pocket expenses such as deductibles and co-payments for the employee.
The bottom line
Our analysis found that 97% of the 2,300 employees would have been better off with the other plan, which had lower premiums but higher cost-sharing.
Yet 23% chose the higher premium plan anyway. The average cost per year of choosing the wrong plan was over $2,000, according to our paper, which we plan to submit for publication soon.
Why it matters
Almost 180 million Americans utilise employer-sponsored health insurance to help pay for medical care. The average covered worker spent over $5,500 on health insurance premiums in 2020, while average Americans exhaust over 8% of their total spending on health care.
See the full report for more…
Link to Full Article:: click here
Link to Source:: click here