RAND Behavioral Finance Webinar

The Complexity of Health Plan Choice

Saurabh Bhargava

ResearchPublished May 18, 2016

The research looks at health insurance plans chosen by employees at a Fortune 500 company once they were allowed to configure their own plans. The vast majority of plans that were available were dominated by another plan in the choice set. This glitch provides a rare opportunity to observe how well people make decisions. Many employees did not notice: two-thirds of employees ended up choosing a plan that was several hundred dollars more per year than a plan that offered the same coverage.

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RAND Style Manual
Bhargava, Saurabh, RAND Behavioral Finance Webinar: The Complexity of Health Plan Choice, RAND Corporation, PT-156, 2016. As of September 24, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/presentations/PT156.html
Chicago Manual of Style
Bhargava, Saurabh, RAND Behavioral Finance Webinar: The Complexity of Health Plan Choice. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2016. https://www.rand.org/pubs/presentations/PT156.html.
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