Congressional Budget Office’s Report on Consumer Directed Health Plans

The central idea behind such designs is that policyholders will remain insured against catastrophic expenses”” but will also be more careful about using health care services because they will have to pay a much larger share of their initial costs. Depending on how enrollees in consumerdirected plans responded to those incentives, the end result could be a lower level of spending to achieve the same improvements in health or possibly better health at the same level of spending. Either outcome would represent an increase in the efficiency of the health care sector.