HEALTH INSURANCE

• Reports & Initiatives
• Market Overview
• Health Affairs
• Consumer Resources
• Coverage Expansion

PROGRAMS

• Better Chronic Disease Care
• Innovations for the Underserved
• Market and Policy Monitor

BROWSE TOPICS

Select... Chronic Disease Care Community Clinics End of Life Care Health Care Almanac Health Care Delivery Health Care Financing Health Insurance Health IT Health Policy Health Privacy Healthy Families Hospitals Long Term Care Medi-Cal Medicare Oral Health Quality Specialty Care Telehealth Workforce Other Topics

ABOUT CHCF

• Oakland Office
• Sacramento Office

MY PROFILE

• Sign Up
• Update Profile

FOLLOW CHCF

YouTube

Facebook

Twitter

Market Overview

Understanding Consumer-Directed Health Care in California

Jon Gabel, Health Research and Educational Trust, and Thomas Rice, UCLA School of Public Health

August 2003

Despite a shared interest among insurers and employers in exploring the potential of consumer-directed health plans, such coverage remains a rarity in California -- a state that typically leads the nation with innovative health care models.

This 2003 report examines consumer-directed health plans, which link consumers' health coverage choices to the financial consequences of those choices. If, for example, consumers choose a health plan that results in greater overall expenditures, they will have to pay more in premiums. This report explains how the products work, identifies the industry players behind them, and discusses the factors likely to influence their growth.

The report focuses on three types of consumer-directed plans, including:

1. Health reimbursement arrangements (HRAs), whereby an employer establishes an individual health reimbursement level for a specified dollar amount for each enrolled employee, generally in conjunction with a high-deductible insurance product;
2. Customized plans, whereby employers make a fixed contribution toward the employee's premium, and the employee then chooses among an array of products with different prices that reflect a wide range of benefit designs and provider networks; and
3. "Design your own" products (so far nonexistent in California) that essentially allow an employee to design a provider network and specify the services covered, with the employee's premium contribution dependent on the choices made.

The complete report is available under Document Downloads below.

Document Downloads

Understanding Consumer-Directed Health Care in California (112K)

Related CHCF Pages

Californians Respond to Changing Health Benefits

Press Release 8/26/03

Help with Document Downloads and Media Players