Shared Responsibility - Individual Self-insurance is an emerging trend

The report which was released on September 10th mentioned that most companies remain sceptical that current market strategies have a major impact on premium growth. These strategies which include disease management, consumer-driven health plans, tighter managed care networks and higher cost-sharing by employees were seen by the majority of firms as being only "somewhat effective" although roughly one third of larger firms viewed disease management as being "very effective". Amongst firms offering covering coverage 56% reported that they had shopped for a new plan in the past year, 31% reported changing insurer in the past year and 34% reported changing the type of health plan offered. An emerging trend to combat premium rises is the increased interest being shown in introducing an element of self-insurance at the employee level through consumer-directed health plans. The plans which combine a high-deductible health plan with a personal or health savings account option are set to become increasingly popular with 6% of firms (representing 13% of the covered workforce) interviewed in the report saying that they would be "very likely" to offer this type of arrangement in the next two years and another 21% (representing 26% of the covered workforce) said that they would be "somewhat likely" to introduce this type of arrangement.