Consumers with private health insurance generally like their health coverage, but they say they are having a harder time getting medical appointments.
Consumers with high-deductible coverage and no health savings account (HSA) or health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) are especially likely to report appointment-setting problems.
Paul Fronstin, an analyst at the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), and Anne Elmlinger, an analyst at Greenwald & Associates, have published appoint access data in a summary of results of an Internet survey of about 2,000 adults ages 21 to 64 who had private health coverage.
The survey team conducted the interviews in August 2014.
The sample included people who had employer-sponsored coverage, and it also included people who bought their own individual coverage, either through a Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) exchange or through the off-exchange market.
The analysts divided the participants into three groups: those who have traditional low-deductible coverage, or coverage with an individual deductible under $1,250, or a family deductible under $2,500; enrollees in high-deductible health plans (HDHPs), or those with high-deductible plans and no access to HSAs or HRAs; and members of account-based health plans, or those with high deductibles and access to HSAs or HRAs.
