NYT/AP: Study: Cost Trumps Choice in Health Care

[DeepModem Mom]

Study: Cost Trumps Choice in Health Care
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: March 24, 2005
Filed at 10:12 a.m. ET


NEW YORK (AP) -- Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance are becoming more willing to accept limits on their choice of providers in order to save on their medical expenses, a new study found.

The amount of Americans with employer-provided coverage who would trade choice of doctors and hospitals for lower out-of-pocket costs rose to 59 percent in 2003 from 55 percent in 2001, according to a new study by the Center for Studying Health System Change.

The jump is likely a result of employers increasingly shifting rising health care costs to their workers in the form of higher premiums, deductibles and co-payments for doctor visits and prescription drugs, said Paul Ginsburg, the president of the Center, a Washington D.C.-based policy research organization.

Ginsburg said the survey results were surprising because consumer attitudes about a preference between choice and cost were stable through 1997 and 2001. Indeed, there was enormous consumer backlash against restrictive managed care policies during the 1990s, paving the way for plans with a wide array of options. But Ginsburg said employers have been increasing cost-sharing since 2002 and now consumers are feeling the pinch.

The study found that low-income consumers were more likely to sacrifice choice to save on costs. Two-thirds of adults with income below $36,800, which was double the federal poverty line for a family of four in 2003, were willing to accept limitations. That compares with 54 percent of adults making at least $73,600, or 400 percent of the poverty level for a family of four....


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Health-Care-Choice.html

[burythehatchet]

1. Single Payer social medicine is the only moral

ethical and financial choice.