Defined contribution health plan to consumer driven health benefits: evolution and experience

Today, the idea of placing more choice on employees "consuming" health care and giving them more responsibility and incentive to control health care costs and utilization is alive and thriving in the form of consumer-driven health care. This article examines the evolution of consumer-driven health benefits--including the experience of the first generation of "defined contribution" health care participants (i.e., retirees) and the results of different approaches employers have taken to early consumer-driven plan designs. The author then describes what's needed to answer the question: "Can consumer-driven health care control health cost?"