As overall healthcare costs continue to rise, the popularity of consumer driven health plans has grown, according to United Benefits Advisors.
Because the employee benefit plans offer companies a way to share health insurance costs while still offering a full range of coverage, CDHPs have seen marked growth in 2011. CDHPs have increased by 13.9 percent in 2011, and they currently comprise 22.9 percent of the overall health insurance market, the source reports.
CDHPs have even become more prevalent than health maintenance organizations, which had previously been the go-to cost-effective health insurance plan for many benefits consultants. At present, HMOs make up only 11.9 percent of the benefit market, UBA explains.
While healthcare reform may help to curb inflating medical costs, it will not be able to halt growth, and as such, it is likely that many businesses will continue to look to CDHPs as a way to manage spending, according to UBA.
"We anticipate that in spite of passage of health care reform efforts, health care costs will continue to increase," explained Bill Stafford of UBA. "There still needs to be concerted efforts to change or alter the underlying health care issues that control costs."
