Consumers surveyed in a new study said they hope their health insurance companies will help them understand healthcare reform and how it will impact their lives.
The study, released Thursday by Chadwick Martin Bailey, a Boston-based custom market research firm, asked 1,500 consumers how they feel about healthcare reform.
"There is quite a bit of confusion around healthcare reform, yet our research shows that Americans expect this reform to impact them personally – they're just not sure how," said Amy Modini, an account director in Chadwick Martin Bailey's healthcare practice. "Going forward, we see that people are expecting their insurance carriers to help clear up this confusion and be a trusted source of information."
According to the study, 75 percent of consumers see health insurance companies as responsible for lowering health costs, significantly more than those pointing the finger at government agencies (46 percent).
The study also found that 67 percent of consumers believe they have little or no impact when it comes to lowering their healthcare costs.
"The confusion around health reform is both an opportunity and a challenge for insurers to take a leadership role and become educators and trusted advisors for consumers to turn to," said Mark Carr, a managing partner of the South Street Strategy Group, a sister company of Chadwick Martin Bailey. "This is just the first of many challenges health reform will pose for carriers."
"As reform shifts a significant portion of the insurance market from a wholesale to a retail market, many insurers, who are largely B-to-B marketers, will need to develop new, more differentiated value propositions and go-to-market strategies," Carr said.