Americans are "hungry" for price information (Part 1)

Public agenda logo

Public Agenda is a non-profit organization founded in 1975 by social scientist and author Daniel Yankelovich and former Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. Over the years, Public Agenda established (not without controversy) its reputation as a provider of non-partisan research and insights into a number of critical issues such a public finances, education or healthcare.

This month the foundation released a report focusing on healthcare: costs and the way the american public interacts with cost information that is becoming trend-setting. The research was based on a nationally representative survey of 2,010 U.S. adults (ages 18+), conducted via telephone and online during the summer of 2014, followed by focus groups and selected semi-structured follow-up interviews.

We have tried to highlight some of the more interesting aspects from their report. In this blog we talk about the raising interest in healthcare price transparency and what motivates the average american to go looking for costs.

Americans are "on the hunt" for healthcare price information

One of the first and most important findings of their national survey was americans are looking for (but, sadly, encountering difficulties in this) information related to healthcare costs. Up to 56% of Americans report having tried to find out the amount of out-of-pocket expenses even before receiving the medical services they were looking for.

Below you can see the percentages of those interested to find out straightforward answers to their cost queries for different types of medical services.

Americans are interested to find out straightforward answers to their cost queries

Curiously, not only out-of-pocket costs are of interest to the average american, but also what their insurers get charged: 21 % say they have tried to find out how much their insurance companies would have to pay doctors or hospitals, even if their out-of-pocket costs would not be affected. This reveals (arguably) that at least one in five americans value healthcare price transparency intrinsically.

What makes one decide to look for information about healthcare cost?

According to this survey not all are equally motivated to search for concrete information on prices. Rather obviously, people with higher deductibles are more likely to go looking for price information: when deductibles rise above $500, fully 67 % report being motivated to search for what those costs would likely be.

The effect of deductibles on the average american’s desire to find our more
  information about costs

Also expected is their finding that people with college degrees - up to 62% - are more likely to be interested in looking up healthcare costs. A bit less obvious is that women - 59% - are more likely than men to prospect for pricing. Retired americans, on the other hand, seem to be rather less interested - only 40% reported engaging in finding more information about costs.

CashDoctor has at the core core of a simple vision: to help consumers share information while taking control of the healthcare model in their own community for their own benefit. For all those that share our values we offer a fully developed infrastructure to share with others information related to the quality and the costs of medical services you needed. Join us!

Feedback/Comments

Add a comment

Posting comment as guest.
If you already have an account, please LOGIN.
If not, you may consider creating on. It’s FREE!




Popular new stories

9/4/14
Undisclosed Committee behind Our Soaring Health Care Costs

12/21/15
THE FOX GUARDING THE HEN COOP

1/18/16
Health is only what’s easy to measure: the case for mental health tracking

Categories

Editors List

Cash Doctor (Administrator)

Cooper B (Cooper)

George B (George)

Grace B (Grace)

Rob Stehlin (rob_stehlin)

Tags

8 word solution to healthcare access to health care access to information affordable health care afghanistan war ai-enabled healthcare annual cost of medical errors in usa apple healthkit bad healthcare barack obama big data cash doctor app cashdoctor app cashdoctor community cashdoctor mission cashdoctor.com platform cash-only patients college students are hurting consumer empowerment cost increases cost of health care cost reduction cost transparency crowdsourcing healthcare information data mining destroyed lives direct pay physicians direct pay practice direct pay system disruptive technologies dr. oliva blog post florida hospital association future healthcare google knowledge graph health health apps health care health care debate health care deception health care hidden agendas health care reform health insurance health insurance is a right health law health measures health plan healthcare healthcare changes healthcare decision making healthcare factors healthcare impact healthcare insurance healthcare lies healthcare movement healthcare price transparency healthcare reform healthcare solution healthcare system healthcare transparency health-related queries higher deductibles hospital cash discount hurt women hurt young people insurance insurance scam internet self-diagnosis large price increases lost jobs measuring value medical data privacy medical debt medical records privacy medical services price sharing medicare payments mobile apps mobile health search mobile healthcare mobile medicine obama obama administration obama’s health care lies obama’s manipulation obamacare obamacare and babies obamacare and pregnant women obamacare deception obamacare disinformation obamacare lies opposed to obamacare patient empowerment physician extenders ppo prefered provider organizations pregnant women and healthcare president obama prevention price comparison data price transparency privacy breach public agenda national survey public expectations on price information searching for healthcare costs share cost sharing information about medical costs social media impact on healthcare standardization of medical procedures symptom search telemedicine transparency transparent free market solution u.s. health system unmet needs us healthcare 2015 predictions usa today analysis user-friendly healthcare it value-based healthcare value-based points what women think of obamacare white house lies women women hate obamacare world hospital database