Consumer Health Plans Growing, Have Lower Costs
This is from an upcoming survey by Watson, Wyatt and the National Business Group on Health:
- More than half of companies now offer consumer directed health plans (CDHPs).
- Employee-only CDHC coverage costs $852 less than other types of plans.
- For family coverage, CDHCs are $2,146 lower than PPO/POS plans and $2,350 lower than the average HMO plan.
Hat tip to Grace-Marie Turner.
Glad to hear some good news, amidst all this gloom and doom.
How is this news? Of course HDHPs have lower premiums. That’s what I get in return for taking on more risk. Does the statement “Employee-only CDHC coverage costs $852 less than other types of plans” take in to account total out of pocket costs or just premiums. If its total OOP, does it take into account selection bias?
Answer to X (is it Mr. X or Madame X?):
I haven’t seen this report, but the normal practice is to report the total premium. So if the premium savings, for example, is $2,000, that means the emploer/employee combined has $2,000 to put in a Health Savings Account. Total spending then depends on how judiciously the account holder manages the HSA deposit.