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What factors influence seniors’ desire for choice among health insurance options? Survey results on the Medicare prescription drug benefit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 2010

Thomas Rice ,
Yaniv Hanoch  and
Janet Cummings
Thomas Rice*
Affiliation:
Professor, Department of Health Services, UCLA School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Yaniv Hanoch
Affiliation:
Lecturer, University of Plymouth, School of Psychology, Drake Circus, Plymouth, UK
Janet Cummings
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, Rollins School of Public Health, Atlanta, GA, USA
*
*Correspondence to: Thomas Rice, Vice Chancellor, Academic Personnel, UCLA, 2138 Murphy Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1405, USA. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Questions about the design of the new US Medicare prescription drug benefit were raised even before its passage, where one of the most heated issues has been the number of plans offered to beneficiaries. Whether beneficiaries believe that there should be extensive or limited choice is still an open question. To study this issue, we analyzed data from the Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard School of Public Health Survey, which included 718 individuals aged 65 years and above. The survey asked these older adults (i) whether they prefer having dozens of plans or for Medicare to offer a restricted number of plans and (ii) whether they think there are too many, too few or the right amount of plans. Our findings show that the majority of beneficiaries (69%) preferred that Medicare offer a limited number of options while only 29% wanted to see dozens of plans on the market. We also examine the effect of education level, income, political affiliation, race and health status on the desire for more or fewer plans. One surprising finding is that seniors with higher education appear to prefer fewer, not more, plan choices. Overall, our results question the merit of offering so many prescription drugs plan choices to Medicare beneficiaries.

Type
Articles
Information
Health Economics, Policy and Law , Volume 5 , Issue 4 , October 2010 , pp. 437 - 457
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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