Although the federal government has made efforts to increase the availability of health information, few people report comparing health insurance plans, hospitals or physicians on quality and prices, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released this week.
Overall, 31 percent of poll respondents reported seeing information comparing physicians, hospitals and health insurance plans in the past year. However, when poll participants were asked specifically if they had seen information comparing prices or quality across plans and providers, fewer than one in five said they had seen such types of information.
Thirteen percent of respondents said they had seen quality comparisons for hospitals in the past 12 months, 10 percent said they had seen quality comparisons for physicians and 15 percent said they had seen quality comparisons for health insurance plans. Also, 18 percent of percent of respondents said they had seen price comparisons for health insurance plans in the past 12 months, 6 percent said they had seen price comparisons for hospitals and 6 percent said they had seen price comparisons for physicians.
But the poll found that even fewer reported actually using this information to decide on physicians, hospitals or health insurance plans. Only 2 percent said they used price information about hospitals, and only 3 percent said they'd used price information about physicians, the poll found. Nine percent said they'd used price information about health insurance plans.
The poll was conducted April 8-14.