The percentage of people with employment-based health insurance dropped from 70 percent in 1987 to 61 percent in 2004. This is the lowest level of employment-based insurance coverage in more than a decade.
Self-Directed
Health Plan (SDHP)
Self-Directed Health Plans (SDHPs) offer
individuals responsibility in their own health care.
SDHPs are setting a great example of new opportunity
and challenging the traditional managed health care
system most individuals tend to rely on. Currently only
a handful of health insurance companies offer such a
plan but then others are behind its ingenuity wholeheartedly.
SDHPs have emerged as a result of an overall dissatisfaction
in the managed health care system and appeal to people
looking and willing to consider alternative ways to
care for their health costs.
The Internet is at the core of this plan.
The Internet offers individuals what they have never
had before—access to important medical information.
SDHPs usually have websites for consumers to keep track
of past health issues, to predict future health issues,
investigate current costs for various procedures and
routine services, and access to medical history, education,
and successes of doctors of interest. The most difficult
part of this plan option is that individuals are responsible
for taking the time to research their options and continuously
keeping track of funds available, predicting future
medical spending, and searching for the doctors or specialist
they see fit. This takes initiative and with traditional
health plans, no research is necessary.
All SDHPs begin with an HSA or Health
Savings Account, where money is freely deposited and
withdrawn for medical expenses. SDHPs see routine care
and services easily taken care of with individual expenses.
Routine care is expected and may be planned for. The
largest percent of health costs comes from acute and
chronic care services. The estimated cost of these services
has already been computed in an “episode”
or a basic cost for bundled services, already researched
and determined. This forces physicians to focus on healing
the patient for good and not simply treating one episode.
SDHPs are expected to grow in popularity,
but research insisted that for busy Americans, a plan
that involves such intense personal contribution is
not promising. It does promise independent freedom in
deciding where medical funds are spent and provides
a more traditional patient/physician relationship where
they agree on cost and service. The individual is in
the driver’s seat with a Self-Directed Health
Plan.
Family-Health-Insurance reviews insurance services to provide information on products and options, but is not an insurer or a licensed agency. Coverage and policies described on this site may not be available in all states.
