Looking for low-cost plans
Respondents to our survey naturally tended to be happier with their plan if they paid less for their coverage, which is one
reason why less-expensive HMOs scored slightly higher in overall satisfaction than PPOs. Readers’ median payments for a year
of premiums, for example, totaled $682 for HMOs, $1,000 for PPOs. And while HMO enrollees paid $220 for their prescriptions
over the same period, PPO members shelled out $393.
Increasingly, Americans are willing to limit their choice of physicians and hospitals to reduce their medical costs, according
to a March 2005 report by the Center for Studying Health System Change, a Washington, D.C., nonpartisan policy-research organization.
Between 2001 and 2003, the proportion of Americans with employer coverage willing to trade a wide choice of providers for
lower costs increased from 55 to 59 percent. That was after the rate had remained stable since 1997.
Consumer demand for a broader selection of providers was a major cause of the managed-care backlash of the mid-1990s, the
HSC study notes. As a result health plans broadened provider networks and eased other care restrictions. However, those changes
were accompanied by rapidly rising premiums. In response, many employers increased patient cost-sharing through higher deductibles,
co-payments, and coinsurance in 2002. A likely explanation for the recent change in consumer attitudes, concludes the HSC
study: The growing burden of higher medical costs is prompting consumers to reassess the choice-cost trade-off.
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