Salt Lake City, August 8, 2017 – Today, Leavitt Partners released “Price, Consumer Choice, and Health Care Marketplaces,” a new white paper addressing the need for more clarity about what dynamics are driving consumer choice in the health insurance marketplaces. Using data on plan premiums, brand, network size, and the exchange-eligible population for ten total states, Leavitt Partners analysts built models of consumers’ choices to provide a more complete picture regarding consumer choices. The models examined factors including price, brand, network size, and the percent of the state’s exchange-eligible population in a given rating area.
The results of these models suggest that while many factors influence an individual’s choice of insurance plan, price was by far the most significant, even accounting for network size and brand. Additionally, Leavitt Partners found that although the price distribution for health plans on the exchanges varied somewhat over the three years of this analysis, the overall spread of plan prices remained relatively similar over time. This indicates that the price variance around the median priced plan has not significantly tightened as the markets have continued to operate over the past three years.
With so little clarity about the dynamics currently driving the health care marketplaces, these findings can help policymakers and business leaders understand what shapes consumer behavior as they consider decisions about the future. The paper can be viewed here.
About Leavitt Partners:
Leavitt Partners is a health care intelligence business. The firm helps clients successfully navigate the evolving role of value in health care by informing, advising, and convening industry leaders on value market analytics, alternative payment models, federal strategies, insurance market insights, and alliances. Through its family of businesses, the firm provides investment support, data and analytics, member-based alliances, and direct services to clients to support decision-making strategies in the value economy. For more information please visit www.LeavittPartners.com.