While most Americans have health insurance coverage through sponsored employee benefits, the majority of employers do not offer a choice of different health plans.
About 84 percent of employers who offered benefits at all made only one plan available to workers in 2011, according to a report by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). The report indicated that 15 percent offered two plans, while only 1 percent made three or more options available. Larger firms were much more likely to offer more diverse options in comparison to smaller ones.
Because of that disparity, nearly half of covered workers have a choice between different health plans despite the small percentage of employers who offer them. Choices were also more common among those who were enrolled in consumer-driven health plans, which researchers attribute to the fact that those individuals tend to work in large organizations.
The study also determined that CDHP and high-deductible health plan (HDHP) enrollees were less likely to be satisfied with their quality of care than others when presented with alternatives. This could cause a shift in the popularity of such plans in the long-term.
