Health Care Management Papers
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of this Version
9-1-2013
Publication Source
Journal of health economics
Volume
32
Issue
5
Start Page
850
Last Page
862
DOI
10.1016/j.jhealeco.2013.04.004
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.
Keywords
insurance, behavioral economics, simplification
Recommended Citation
Loewenstein, G., Friedman, J., McGill, B., Ahmad, S., Linck, S., Sinkula, S., Beshears, J., Choi, J., Kolstad, J., Laibson, D., Madrian, B., List, J., & Volpp, K. G. (2013). Consumers' Misunderstanding of Health Insurance.. Journal of health economics, 32 (5), 850-862. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2013.04.004
Date Posted: 27 November 2017