Photo Source: The Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Surveys
Abstract
New estimates from the Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey, 2014, indicate that 23 percent of 19-to-64-year-old adults who were insured all year — or 31 million people — had such high out-of-pocket costs or deductibles relative to their incomes that they were underinsured. These estimates are statistically unchanged from 2010 and 2012, but nearly double those found in 2003 when the measure was first introduced in the survey. The share of continuously insured adults with high deductibles has tripled, rising from 3 percent in 2003 to 11 percent in 2014. Half (51%) of underinsured adults reported problems with medical bills or debt and more than two of five (44%) reported not getting needed care because of cost. Among adults who were paying off medical bills, half of underinsured adults and 41 percent of privately insured adults with high deductibles had debt loads of $4,000 or more.
Exhibit 2. Underinsured rates among adults ages 19-64 who were insured all year, by source of coverage at the time of the 2014 survey
20% – Employer-provided coverage
37% – Individual coverage
22% – Medicaid
42% – Medicare (under age 65, disabled)
Conclusion
In addition, the law has only limited ability to improve the cost protection of employer plans, which is the source of most American’s health insurance.
Reforms and new approaches are needed to improve the cost protection of health plans. These could include innovations in benefit design that slow growth in deductibles and emphasize incentives that encourage people to utilize, rather than delay, timely health care. In addition, policymakers should identify and address holes in health plans — like out-of-network physicians in in-network hospitals — which are surprising many families with unexpected costs. Finally, systemwide efforts to lower the underlying rate of medical cost growth and share those savings with consumers will be critical.
http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2015/may/probl…
****
Comment:
By Don McCanne, MD
This update of The Commonwealth Fund’s continuing study of the rate of underinsurance confirms that the problem persists, and the trend of increasing deductibles may well make it worse.
It is alarming that, since 2003, the category with the most comprehensive coverage – employer-provided coverage – has doubled the rate of underinsurance increasing from 10% to 20%. The greatest contributing factor has been the increase in the use of high deductibles.
Because this study was of individuals insured for a full year, and it was completed before the end of 2014 – the first year of the ACA exchanges – the underinsurance rate of enrollees in the exchanges could not be separated out, and they were included in the category of individual coverage. In total, 37% of those with individual coverage were underinsured. This is no surprise since high deductibles have been used in the individual market in an attempt to prevent premiums from becoming even less affordable, but this has been at the cost of more than doubling the rate of underinsurance.
Although we do not have the data yet, we can make some assumptions, based on plan design, for the trends in underinsurance for those enrolled in the exchanges. Because of the subsidies for out-of-pocket expenses for those with the lowest incomes that qualify for the exchange plans, it is possible that the rate of underinsurance is slightly reduced for this group. However, for those with moderate incomes, especially for those who do not qualify for cost-sharing subsidies, the relatively low actuarial values (percent of costs that the plans cover) that most exchange enrollees select will likely perpetuate and perhaps even expand the prevalence of underinsurance. So middle-income Americans do not escape the risk of being underinsured.
Although Medicaid provides more comprehensive benefits with fewer out-of-pocket expenses, the very low incomes of Medicaid beneficiaries leave many of them underinsured since the modest cost sharing that they do have consumes an excessive percentage of their incomes.
Patients under 65 who receive Medicare do so because of major long-term disabilities. Since most of them have very limited incomes and other expenses, and Medicare’s comprehensiveness is limited, this group has the highest rates of underinsurance – 42%. Obviously, when we speak of Medicare for all, it is imperative that we clarify that we mean an improved Medicare that has much more comprehensive coverage.
Can this trend be reversed? Can we put in place policies that will result in reducing or even eliminating the deductibles?
If the plans were to maintain the same actuarial values to keep the premiums the same while reducing deductibles, the out-of-pocket costs would shift to those with greater health care needs who already have enough financial problems. That would defeat one of the most important functions of health insurance – preventing financial hardship in the face of medical need.
Another possibility would be to reduce the deductibles and shift the actuarial values upward, but that would result in sharp increases in insurance premiums. That would not be acceptable to employers, nor would it be acceptable to politicians who would have to find revenue sources to increase the premium subsidies for the exchange plans. It is easy to cut spending for employers and for the budget hawks in Congress, but it is almost impossible to reverse the cuts and restore or even expand that spending.
Suppose we leave the higher deductibles in place, but provide enough subsidies to eliminate underinsurance for everyone. The administrative complexity alone would make this a very foolish idea. Also when you look at who is underinsured, you would have to increase the amounts of the subsidies and expand eligibility to cover many more of the moderate income individuals in the exchanges, and you would also have to provide subsidies for those enrolled in employer-provided plans to cover the increase in deductibles and other cost sharing in those plans. This would further compound the wasteful administrative excesses that already characterize our health care financing system.
Do we really need to say it again? A well designed single payer system would fix this.