Private health plans no longer assure adequate protection

Privately Insured in America: Opinions on Health Care Costs and Coverage

The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, October 2014

A significant minority of those with private health insurance, including those covered by high-deductible health plans (HDHPs), are greatly impacted by the out-of-pocket cost of health care—they are concerned with the uncertainty of major expenses, skip necessary medical treatment, and experience real financial burden when obtaining health care. All told, about 1 in 8 privately insured Americans—or more than 16 million people—face major financial hardships like going without food or using up all of their savings as a result of medical bills.

When asked about nine specific behaviors to reduce personal health care expenses, about half of privately insured adults age 18-64 experienced at least one of them.

• As a result of health care costs, significant minorities of privately insured individuals don’t go to the doctor when they are sick (19 percent), go without preventive and recommended care (18 percent), use up all or most of their savings (18 percent), and go without basic needs (13 percent).
• A quarter of privately insured adults age 18-64 lack confidence in their ability to pay for a major unexpected medical expense.
• The privately insured who report having a HDHP are more likely than those who do not to decrease their contributions to savings (41 percent vs. 26 percent) and retirement plans (28 percent vs. 15 percent) as a result of health care costs.
• Nearly 1 in 4 adults age 18-64 covered by a HDHP reports that paying for health care expenses caused them to use up their savings.
• Thirty-five percent of those surveyed indicate that when enrolling in a health insurance plan, their current plan was the only option available.
• With out-of-pocket costs emerging as a major source of uncertainty among the privately insured, more privately insured Americans choose a health care plan with a relatively high monthly premium but lower out-of-pocket costs (52 percent) over a plan with relatively low premiums and higher out-of-pocket costs (40 percent), when presented with the tradeoff.
• But, there isn’t overwhelming support for plans with select networks5 designed to keep out-of-pocket costs low. Twenty percent say they are extremely or very willing to participate in this type of plan, 38 percent are somewhat willing, and 40 percent are not too or not at all willing.

Of those who indicate they have used health care services since enrolling in their current health insurance plan, 39 percent say the out-of-pocket costs being higher than expected has been a major (14 percent) or a minor (24 percent) problem.

As the health care marketplace is evolving with the advent of new exchanges, those who purchase their health insurance plans directly or through exchanges are more likely to express difficulty finding health care providers covered under their plans.

Those who have changed health insurance plans and say they have HDHPs are especially likely to cite increased costs without a corresponding increase in quality.

http://www.apnorc.org/PDFs/Coverage/AP-NORC-Opinions%20on%20Health%20Care%20Costs%20and%20Coverage_FINAL%20web%20(1).pdf

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Comment:

By Don McCanne, MD

This new survey conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research confirms, once again, that private health insurance in the United States often is not providing adequate financial protection for those with health care needs. More than 16 million people who have private insurance “face major financial hardships like going without food or using up all of their savings as a result of medical bills.” The one-half of Americans who use hardly any health care at all likely do not realize that they are one major illness away from similar financial hardship.

When something is not working, we should fix it. The inadequacies of private plans cannot be repaired without intolerable increases in health insurance premiums. Yet a well designed single payer national health program could remove the financial barriers to care - for everyone - without any increase in our current national health expenditures. Without action, 30 million will remain without any insurance at all, and many of the rest of us could remain vulnerable to high out-of-pocket medical costs in spite of our private insurance coverage.