Patients Value Choice of Providers Over Choice of Plans
<p>Policymakers should be cautious about embracing the individual insurance market and health savings accounts as a way to improve satisfaction with the health care system, says a new Commonwealth Fund-supported study.<bR><br>In an analysis of national survey data titled <a>"Choice" in Health Care: What Do People Really Want?,</a> researcher Jeanne M. Lambrew, Ph.D., of George Washington University found that two of three adults who are working or covered by employer-sponsored insurance prefer that an employer select a set of health plans on their behalf, rather than provide them with an account to purchase insurance in the individual market.<br><bR>The analysis also revealed that participants value a choice of health care providers over a choice of health plans. Dissatisfaction among adults with no choice of providers was more than twice as high as among those with no choice of plan.</p>
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/newsletters/ealerts/2005/sep/patients-value-choice-of-providers-over-choice-of-plans