Cost sharing and the changing pattern of employer-sponsored health benefits. Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • The perception that employers have been redesigning group health benefits to encourage more cost-effective use is distorted by limited study methods. New estimates of initiatives undertaken by larger private-sector employers--based on nationally representative data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics--reveal a more uncertain picture of cost containment. Cost sharing for initial hospital stays was broadened between 1981 and 1985, but coverage in most other areas--categories of care, lifetime benefit limits, etc.--was actually increased. Real health care expenditures will continue to grow absent more significant employee cost sharing.

published proceedings

  • Milbank Q

altmetric score

  • 3

author list (cited authors)

  • Jensen, G. A., Morrisey, M. A., & Marcus, J. W.

citation count

  • 27

complete list of authors

  • Jensen, GA||Morrisey, MA||Marcus, JW

publication date

  • January 1987

publisher