Changing Health Insurance Trends

With health care expenditures growing far more rapidly than the economy, employers and the health insurers whose plans employers purchase are implementing new ways to reconcile the strong demand for medical services with the means to pay for them. The changes fall short of a grand strategy, but they do underscore the emergence of a set of beliefs that will influence the shape of private insurance for the foreseeable future. Their centerpiece is a conviction that individual consumers of health care should assume greater financial responsibility for the decisions they make when selecting insurance benefits and seeking medical treatment. Central . . .