title: Consumer-directed health care: it's not whether the glass is half-empty, but why.
abstract: Analyses of consumer-directed health plans often focus on how use of services under such a plan compares with what use would have been under a more comprehensive benefit design. That's a natural perspective for analysts who observe movement from a world of rich coverage to one of more limited coverage. But the comparison may confuse the message with the messenger. In a world where employers are seeking any port in a storm of unsustainable cost growth, it might be more useful to compare offering a consumer-directed plan to other options that employers could have chosen in constraining health costs.
authors.affiliation: Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy, Oakland, California, USA. murray.ross@kp.org
authors.forename: Murray N
authors.initials: MN
authors.lastname: Ross
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003258:Consumer Behavior / Q000191:economics*; D003363:Cost Control; D003669:Deductibles and Coinsurance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006264:Health Benefit Plans, Employee; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services; D020402:Medical Savings Accounts / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards; D008875:Middle Aged; D010358:Patient Participation; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D014481:United States