Keywords
insurance, behavioral economics, simplification
Abstract
We report results from two surveys of representative samples of Americans with private health insur-ance. The first examines how well Americans understand, and believe they understand, traditional healthinsurance coverage. The second examines whether those insured under a simplified all-copay insuranceplan will be more likely to engage in cost-reducing behaviors relative to those insured under a traditionalplan with deductibles and coinsurance, and measures consumer preferences between the two plans. Thesurveys provide strong evidence that consumers do not understand traditional plans and would betterunderstand a simplified plan, but weaker evidence that a simplified plan would have strong appeal toconsumers or change their healthcare choices.
Original Publication Citation
“Consumers’ Misunderstanding of Health Insurance.” 2013. Journal of Health Economics 32(5): 850-862 (with George Loewenstein, Joelle Y. Friedman, Barbara McGill, Sarah Ahmad, Suzanne Linck, Stacey Sinkula, John Beshears, James J. Choi, Jonathan Kolstad, David Laibson, John A. List and Kevin G. Volpp). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhealeco.2013.04.004
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Loewenstein, George; Friedman, Joelle Y.; McGill, Barbara; Ahmad, Sarah; Linck, Suzanne; Sinkula, Stacey; Beshears, John; Choi, James J.; Kolstad, Jonathan; Laibson, David; Madrian, Brigitte C.; List, John A.; and Volpp, Kevin G., "Consumers’ Misunderstanding of Health Insurance" (2013). Faculty Publications. 9040.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/9040
Document Type
Peer-Reviewed Article
Publication Date
2013
Publisher
Journal of Health Economics
Language
English
College
Marriott School of Business
Department
Finance
Copyright Status
© 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Copyright Use Information
https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/