Optimistic outlook for consumer-driven health care

Health savings accounts are giving the market a boost, some experts say.

By Joel B. Finkelstein, AMNews staff. March 7, 2005.

Washington -- Health insurance brokers see consumer-driven health plans as increasingly attractive products for their customers, many of them employers beset by steep increases in the cost of their workers' health benefits, according to a recent survey for the National Assn. of Health Underwriters.

The past year has changed many brokers' opinions about just how far consumer-driven offerings are from broader adoption. One year ago, 80% said these plans were five or more years away from being a mainstream option, but the new survey shows that 77% think the plans will be adopted more widely in the near future.

The survey found that respondents expected 41% of large employers to begin offering consumer-driven options next year. These types of plans typically include high-deductible coverage tied to financial incentives that encourage patients to make cost-effective choices about their health care.

Consumer-driven plans currently constitute less than 2% of the market for private insurance, said the survey's author, Michael Main, managing partner at ChapterHouse, a Chicago consulting firm.

Current statistics show that about 3 million people have such insurance, said Doug Kronenberg, chair of the Consumer-Driven Health Care Assn., a trade organization based in Norwalk, Conn. He is also chief strategy officer at Lumenos, one of the leading providers of consumer-driven plans.

"For those of us that have been doing this for the past five years, that feels like a slow build, but all of the indications are that this is going to now begin to turn and head up," Kronenberg said.