Consumers want more of a hand in making decisions about theirhealth insurance.
|That news comes from a health insurance survey fromHealthPocket, which discovered that consumers' desire for morechoice includes choosing their own provider.
|The majority (65 percent) of working Americans said they wouldlike to be able to choose their health insurance company forthemselves, while just 22 percent preferred their employer be incharge. An additional 38 percent said they either were not workingor their employer didn't offer insurance.
|The information is important as the health plan market shiftsfrom primarily group-focused to individually-focused. That's mostlydue to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, whichrequires every state to open a public exchange where consumers canshop for a plan that best suits their needs. With exchanges set toopen in October, some insurance experts predict thatemployer-sponsored health coverage won't be as widely available asit is now.
|HealthPocket CEO Bruce Telkamp said the “stage is set” underPPACA for a decline in employer-sponsored health insurance and arise in individually purchased coverage.
|And for consumers who want more personal choice, that shift maysuit them just fine.
|“For those workers who will migrate from employer-sponsored toindividually purchased health insurance, they'll get the controlthey desire,” Telkamp said.
|According to Gallup, employer-sponsored health coverage is at anall-time low.
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