Related Experiment Videos
Eliciting consumer preferences for health plans.
B C Booske1, F Sainfort, A S Hundt
1Center for Health Systems Research and Analysis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 53705, USA.
Health Services Research
|October 28, 1999
Summary
Providing health plan information influences consumer preferences, with cost and coverage remaining key factors. Consumers need assistance processing information to make informed health plan choices.
Area of Science:
- Health Services Research
- Consumer Behavior
- Decision Science
Background:
- Understanding consumer preferences is crucial for effective health plan selection.
- Informed decision-making in health insurance is complex due to information overload.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate factors influencing health plan choices.
- To assess the impact of health plan information on stated preferences.
- To evaluate how preference elicitation methods affect stated importance of health plan attributes.
Main Methods:
- A health plan choice experiment was conducted with 201 Wisconsin state employees.
- A computer system guided participants through reviewing health plan information and revising preferences.
- Data collected included attribute importance weightings at multiple time points.
Main Results:
- Health plan information significantly altered participants' preference structures.
- Cost and coverage were consistently the most important attributes cited by consumers.
- Despite information provision, cost and coverage remained dominant factors in health plan selection.
Conclusions:
- Continued efforts to provide accessible health plan information are necessary.
- Effective health plan selection requires more than just information availability.
- Consumers benefit from support in understanding and processing information to construct preferences and improve decision-making.