Public's Expectations of Health Insurance and Attitudes Towards Potential New Insurance Options

Health Insurance Options

This Featured Topic uses data from the 2003 Kaiser Health Insurance Survey to examine people's expectations and priorities for their health care coverage, attitudes toward employer-sponsored insurance and opinions about several alternative health insurance plans that are currently under consideration.

Health Insurance Priorities and Expectations

A large majority of non-elderly adults says that the most important reason to have health insurance is to protect against high medical bills (71%), rather than to pay for everyday health care expenses (25%). When asked to choose the most important feature in a health plan, about a third (35%) choose cost factors as most important.

Nearly six in ten (57%) insured adults under age 65 say they feel well protected by their health insurance plan while nearly four in ten (38%) say they worry that they may have health care needs that will not be covered.

Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Attitudes

About eight in ten (79%) adults with employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) say their employer is doing the best they can to provide them with affordable health insurance coverage. When given the choice, over half (55%) would prefer to continue to have their employer pay for their coverage, rather than receive cash to buy insurance on their own (7%); 37% say it wouldn't make much difference either way.

Most people with ESI would choose to keep the insurance coverage they have now, even if they have to pay more (76%) rather than switch to a more restrictive plan with fewer benefits and continue to pay their current premium (19%).

Views About Alternative Health Insurance Options

When the option of a tax credit is described, many people are doubtful they could find a plan to meet their families needs with a tax credit in the amount of $1,000 for an individual or $3,000 for families. Two-thirds (67%) of non-elderly adults say they would be likely to supplement it with some of their own money to purchase a better plan and about three-quarters (76%) of those with employer-sponsored insurance would choose to continue receiving insurance through their employer rather than try and purchase it on their own.

When a catastrophic-type health plan with a deductible of $2,000 for an individual or $5,000 for a family is described, large majorities of non-elderly adults say they have an unfavorable opinion of such a plan (77%), and that they would feel vulnerable to high medical bills with this type of coverage (79%).

Respondents express similarly negative views when a specific "consumer-driven" plan is described. Offered a plan where employers put $1,000 for an individual ($2,000 for a family) into an account that an employee could use to pay for medical costs and which rolls over to the following year that also includes catastrophic coverage that would kick in after the individual has spent $2,000 ($4,000 for a family) on medical expenses, large majorities of those with employer-sponsored insurance say they would have an unfavorable opinion of the plan (73%), and would feel vulnerable to high medical bills with this type of coverage (78%).