Traditional Health Plan Enrollees Report Higher Levels of Satisfaction With Health Coverage

Traditional health plan enrollees are more satisfied with overall health coverage and out-of-pocket costs and are also more likely to recommend their coverage to a friend than individuals with consumer-driven health plans (CDHPs) or high-deductible health plans (HDHPs).

Researchers who conducted the 2014 EBRI/Greenwald & Associates Consumer Engagement in Health Care Survey discovered that 61% of traditional plan enrollees were extremely or very satisfied with their overall plan as compared to CDHP and HDHP enrollees who reported 46% and 37% satisfaction respectively.

The study’s authors noted that out-of-pocket costs were 1 of the determining factors involved in satisfaction rates. The study found that almost half of traditional health plan enrollees reported higher levels of satisfaction with out-of-pocket costs than CDHP and HDHP enrollees.

While traditional health plan and CDHP enrollees differed among various categories of satisfaction, both groups came to the same agreement in terms of quality of care. More than two-thirds (68%) of traditional health plan enrollees and 66% of CDHP enrollees were extremely or very satisfied with the quality of care. Although, HDHP enrollee responses indicated higher dissatisfaction rates among quality of care.

The online survey, which collected responses from a random sample of 2000 adults in the United States, also noted that the overall satisfaction rates for CDHP enrollees have been trending upward in the past few years and overall dissatisfaction rates among CDHP and HDHP members have been displaying decreasing trends.