High deductible health plan costs families

BOSTON, March 31 (UPI) -- Among families with large employers, those living in high-poverty areas were more likely to be switched to a high-deductible plan, U.S. researchers found.

Study leader Dr. Alison Galbraith and Dr. Tracy Lieu of Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School used enrollment and claims data from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, a large New England health plan, for the study.

They identified 839 families with children who initially had traditional health maintenance organization plans through Harvard Pilgrim, but whose employers later switched them to a high-deductible health plan when if was offered by Harvard Pilgrim. The researchers compared this group with 5,133 families whose employers stayed with the traditional plan, to see what kinds of families were most likely to be switched to high-deductible plans.

The study, published in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics, found that overall, about one-third of those who were switched to high-deductible plans had a child with a chronic condition, 13 percent lived in neighborhoods with high poverty, 36 percent had an above-average burden of illness, 19 percent incurred large healthcare costs at baseline -- more than $7,000 a year, including out-of-pocket costs.

"The usual assumption is that high-deductible plans attract healthy and wealthy people, based on studies of people who chose those plans themselves," Galbraith said in a statement. "Our population only had one plan offered to them -- and we found that many of those who were switched to high-deductible plans had children with chronic conditions."