Choosing among health insurance options: a study of new employees.
This study examines how 296 new university employees selected among alternative health care options. Those selecting a traditional Blue Cross and Blue Shield (BC&BS) plan attributed greater importance to freedom of choice of physician, while those selecting an HMO were more likely to give priority to cost considerations in seeing a doctor and to having services at a single location. Better educated respondents and those with more recent experience with the medical care system were more accurate in objectively appraising alternative choices. Respondents, whether choosing a BC&BS plan or an HMO, tended to deny the gatekeeper roles of physicians in HMOs, although the BC&BS plan enrollees were somewhat better informed.
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Rutgers University, Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research, Brunswick, NJ 08903.
Ettel
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Davis
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D001290:Attitude; D054598:Blue Cross Blue Shield Insurance Plans; D002755:Choice Behavior; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D004493:Education; D005260:Female; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee / Q000191:economics; D006279:Health Maintenance Organizations; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000191:economics; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011243:Preferred Provider Organizations; D014495:Universities