Insurance and the Uninsured
People who enroll in consumer-driven health plans generally reduce usage of medical services, regardless of whether the service is needed, according to a study in the Medical Care Research and Review.
Researchers found that members of CDHPs with high deductibles reduce their use of health care services more than CDHP members with lower deductibles. Moreover, the study findings indicted that CDHP members with lower wages and less education were most likely to scale back their use of the health care system.
The authors suggest providing more targeted information to CDHP members that encourages them to only reduce their use of health care services that evidence-based medicine would deem unnecessary (Hibbard et al., Medical Care Research and Review, August 2008).