J.D. Power released a health insurance satisfaction survey this past week in which a headline finding was that customers who bought private insurance plans on ACA exchanges expressed slightly higher average satisfaction than people in employer-sponsored plans* - 696 to 679 on a 1000-point scale.
Power polled plan holders both on their satisfaction with the plan itself and with the enrollment process. A few notes on specific findings:
1. Regarding the sources of satisfaction with the plans themselves, Power reports, "Cost is the most influential attribute driving satisfaction among Marketplace plan members" but also that "plan members are most satisfied with the provider selection and claims processing attributes." I'm not sure how those findings fit together. Perhaps plan members gave selection and claims processing the highest absolute ratings but also said that cost was the most important factor to them? I'll see if I can find out. [UPDATE 4/27: Rick Johnson, senior director of the health care practice at J.D. Power, confirms that the inference above is correct: respondents rated price their top concern, but gave the highest scores to provider selection and claims processing.]
2. Re the satisfaction related to cost: 87% of marketplace customers qualified for premium subsidies, and among those, the federal government paid 72% of the premium on average, leaving the customer with an average premium share of $101. Small wonder if those low premiums were a source of satisfaction.
Power polled plan holders both on their satisfaction with the plan itself and with the enrollment process. A few notes on specific findings:
1. Regarding the sources of satisfaction with the plans themselves, Power reports, "Cost is the most influential attribute driving satisfaction among Marketplace plan members" but also that "plan members are most satisfied with the provider selection and claims processing attributes." I'm not sure how those findings fit together. Perhaps plan members gave selection and claims processing the highest absolute ratings but also said that cost was the most important factor to them? I'll see if I can find out. [UPDATE 4/27: Rick Johnson, senior director of the health care practice at J.D. Power, confirms that the inference above is correct: respondents rated price their top concern, but gave the highest scores to provider selection and claims processing.]
2. Re the satisfaction related to cost: 87% of marketplace customers qualified for premium subsidies, and among those, the federal government paid 72% of the premium on average, leaving the customer with an average premium share of $101. Small wonder if those low premiums were a source of satisfaction.
