Consumers’ misunderstanding of health insurance

B-Tier
Journal: Journal of Health Economics
Year: 2013
Volume: 32
Issue: 5
Pages: 850-862

Authors (13)

Loewenstein, George (Carnegie Mellon University) Friedman, Joelle Y. (not in RePEc) McGill, Barbara (not in RePEc) Ahmad, Sarah (not in RePEc) Linck, Suzanne (not in RePEc) Sinkula, Stacey (not in RePEc) Beshears, John (not in RePEc) Choi, James J. (not in RePEc) Kolstad, Jonathan (University of California-Berke...) Laibson, David (Harvard University) Madrian, Brigitte C. (National Bureau of Economic Re...) List, John A. (National Bureau of Economic Re...) Volpp, Kevin G. (not in RePEc)

Score contribution per author:

0.155 = (α=2.01 / 13 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We report results from two surveys of representative samples of Americans with private health insurance. The first examines how well Americans understand, and believe they understand, traditional health insurance coverage. The second examines whether those insured under a simplified all-copay insurance plan will be more likely to engage in cost-reducing behaviors relative to those insured under a traditional plan with deductibles and coinsurance, and measures consumer preferences between the two plans. The surveys provide strong evidence that consumers do not understand traditional plans and would better understand a simplified plan, but weaker evidence that a simplified plan would have strong appeal to consumers or change their healthcare choices.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:jhecon:v:32:y:2013:i:5:p:850-862
Journal Field
Health
Author Count
13
Added to Database
2026-01-25