Who has a choice of health plans?

Policy makers are concerned that consumers have no voice in the changing health care system. They debate, however, whether the consumers' voice should be heard through regulation, such as patient protections, or the marketplace. For market forces to work in the consumers' interest, consumers must have a choice of plans and detailed information on which to base their choice. New survey data from the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) suggest that more consumers have a choice of plans than is generally believed, and that the proportion of consumers who have plan choice is increasing. According to HSC's 1998-1999 Household Survey, 64 percent of families have a choice of health plans--two percentage points higher than two years ago.