Consumer-Directed Health Care: Will It Improve Health System Performance?

Will consumer-directed health care improve system performance?

Consumer-directed health care plans have attracted attention as a method for managing rising health care spending by giving consumers greater financial control over their health care. However, increased cost-sharing--the principal tool used by these plans to achieve lower spending--may also cause patients to consume less care, even when that care is essential. Research studies have found that l...

Consumer - Directed Health Care

DEBATE CONSUMER-DIRECTED HEALTH CARE You won't hear many health experts claim that the American healthcare system is functioning perfectly in terms of core considerations such as cost, access, and quality. The question that arises with the advent of any new policy approach seeking to improve the system is obvious: Does the change represent a step forward or backward? of the University of Michig...

Debate Consumer - Directed Health Care

Consumer-directed health care: are consumers ready?

In the continuing quest to bring health care costs and the rate of health care inflation under control, a new concept known as consumer-directed health care is steadily gaining momentum nationwide. The proponents of this somewhat controversial movement argue that, heretofore, consumers of health care (ie, our patients) were passive recipients of health care services and as a result were effecti...

The Economics of Consumer Directed Health Care

This paper presents a model of consumer directed health care, high deductible insurance plans. Insurance companies in a competitive market offer such plans; higher deductibles result in lower premiums. Such changes affect consumers’ decisions on preventive care. I show that preventive care may or may not increase when consumers face more risk and lower premium. Furthermore, I look at selection ...