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Researchers at RAND have discovered a factor that could help shore up the Affordable Care Act and limit use of commercial insurance to solve some social problems: Many Americans think some everyday forms of health-related underwriting are unfair.
Lloyd Dixon and James Anderson talk about public attitudes toward risk-based pricing in insurance in a new research paper based on survey responses from 867 U.S. adults.
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The researchers found that typical Americans oppose use of many health insurance rating factors that were heavily used just 20 years ago.
Fewer than 30% of the survey participants support the idea of tying health insurance premiums to an individual's gender, age, race, prior health problems, genetic traits or exposure to pollution.
Views appear to clash even with the one chance insurers still have to protect themselves against health risk: The current Affordable Care Act health insurance underwriting and pricing framework has eliminated most forms of medical underwriting but still lets insurers tie premiums to the enrollees' age.
More than 60% are comfortable with the idea of imposing higher rates on insureds who are heavy drinkers, smokers or illegal drug users. Obesity was the factor that came closest to a tie.About 45% of the survey participants support charging people who are obese more for health insurance.
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Allison Bell
Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.
