In Michigan, people shopping for health insurance are likely to pick cost savings over the chance to keep their current doctor, according to new research from the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation.
Center Executive Director Marianne Udow-Phillips says comparison shopping has gotten easier for people with the healthcare exchange.
“It’s much more evident to (consumers) that those plans that have more doctors, more hospitals, tend to be more expensive,” she says.
Udow-Phillips says the consumer trend could force more doctors to accept new insurance plans. According to the report, nearly one-in-five people who bought individual plans on the healthcare exchange left doctors last year.
“That means that we’ll see more competition for providers to participate in these narrow-network plans,” says Udow-Phillips. “We’ll see health insurers trying to design healthcare plans with more limited networks, if they can get them for a cheaper price. And we’ll see consumers who are willing to make some trade-offs between cost and access, and willing to change doctors.”
Listen to our conversation with Udow-Phillips for more on this shift in health consumer behavior and what it means.