Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Republicans are pushing for increased use of high deductible health plans (HDHP). HDHPs have increased over time, from 29% of all employer health plans in 2021 to 33% of all employer health plans in 2025. One country that has successfully used HDHP is Singapore. A 2020 Commonweath Fund Report summarizes 3 components of the Singapore’s…
For many individuals with employer-provided health insurance, a recent paper by Liu and Sydnor (2022) find that this is indeed the case. The authors use data from the 2011-2016 Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) Employer Health Benefits Survey (EHBS). The authors examine the maximum out-of-pocket cost (including both premiums and maximum cost-sharing) as well as whether…
Unsurprisingly, high-deductible health plans lead to lower utilization of healthcare services. A study by Sandoval et al. (2021) use data from 2007-2019 from Switzerland to show that this is the case. Participants with high-deductible plans reported forgoing health care more frequently than those with low-deductible plans (331 [13.5%] vs 591 [8.7%]). In adjusted analysis, higher-deductible…
This is the question that Zhang et al. (2017) attempt to answer using data form people who switched to a high-deductible health plan (HDHP) compared to those who stayed in the same plan. They found: After enrollment in HDHPs, 28 percent of enrollees changed physicians for office visits (compared to 19 percent in the Traditional…
Recently, health insurers have been more likely to offer a tiered copayment structure to enrollees. Patients face low co-payments for generic drugs, higher copayments for “preferred” name-brand drugs, and the highest for name-brand drugs on a “nonpreferred” list. Consumer driven health plans (CDHPs) however offer a simpler payment system. The consumer generally places funds into…
Consumer directed health plans (CDHP) seem like an attractive option for small businesses. CDHPs utilize high deductible health plans (HDHP) making patients pay more money out of pocket. Because of this, insurance premiums are lower. These HDHPs can be linked to Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) or Health Savings Accounts (HSAs). Since small businesses do not…