They're happy with the coverage they're finding in health exchanges, say enrollees under the Affordable Care Act, but they're also savvy enough to shop around online.
That's according to a Deloitte study, which found that not only are health exchange customers as happy with their coverage as people covered by employer health plans, but they're also more involved in researching available options and cost — and their confidence in being able to access health care and handle the costs is growing.
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While lower-income individuals still report having some difficulty meeting out-of-pocket expenses, 70 percent of surveyed exchange consumers say they were able to manage their out-of-pocket expenses in the last year and only one in four say they had higher out-of-pocket costs than they expected after using their coverage.
And they're becoming more educated when it comes to insurance. More exchange consumers say they understand the costs of their coverage than people who have coverage through an employer. In addition, more than half (61 percent) of exchange consumers say they look at the total costs, not just the premiums, when they're comparing coverage options. Nearly 40 percent say they look at brand and total costs when evaluating different coverage options.
The report also found that more exchange customers are willing to accept network tradeoffs for lower payments than in 2015. These tradeoffs include a smaller network of hospitals (27 percent in 2016, compared with 18 percent in 2015), a network that does not include their current primary care provider (26 percent in 2016, compared with 16 percent in 2015), and a smaller network of doctors (26 percent, compared with 18 percent in 2015).
"We're witnessing the continuing evolution of a more consumer-centric model of health care, and the ways in which consumers are navigating the exchanges provide evidence of that," Greg Scott, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, and vice chairman and national sector leader for the health plans practice, said in a statement.
Scott continued: "Health care consumers' expectations for information and transparency are increasing, as is their interest in intuitive tools to access relevant information. Meeting these expectations should lead to increasingly more confident and satisfied customers in the future."
Enrollees may not be as satisfied with the coverage they've found in health exchanges as those who are covered by Medicare and Medicaid, but a growing number of enrollees are confident in their ability to access affordable health care.
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