Seventy-two percent of U.S. consumers who plan to join insurance exchanges say affordability is the top driver of their healthcare decisions, but only 30% are willing to change doctors or healthcare settings to reduce costs, according to a survey by Accenture.
As the post-reform marketplace expands to 51 million individually insured consumers, health insurers will need to differentiate their services and engage new customers, which could be challenging considering that consumers want for lower healthcare costs with few tradeoffs.
While healthcare consumers seek low out-of-pocket healthcare costs, fewer than 20% of those surveyed understand the cost of their care in advance or feel they should track and budget healthcare expenses.
Only 43% of consumers are willing to change to generic prescriptions (43 percent); 41% are willing to use a nurse practitioner instead of a doctor for routine visits, and 23% are willing to change their primary care doctor.
Although 81% want guidance to improve their health, 40% don’t identify going to the doctor for regular checkups as a priority. Only one out of the four consumers trust insurers to provide guidance on improving their health. For more information, visit www.accenture.com.
