The Tyranny of Choice

Contrary to what has been the conventional wisdom that what health-insurance consumers want above all is choice, a study by Accenture, the consulting firm,  found that most patients would be happy to be in a narrower, coordinated-care network as long as they have  generally good medical service and  control over their medical information.

Jean-Pierre Stephan, a managing director at Accenture. said: “We found that patients actually prefer these coordinated-care networks. Consumers don’t want unlimited choice. What they want is a few good choices.”

Part of Modern Healthcare’s summary of the report  said:  “Consumers are more loyal to their preferred airline or hotel chain than their doctors, he (Mr. Stephan} added. Only 26% of the 1,980 adults surveyed said they would definitely leave a network if their doctor stopped participating in it. Ninety-four percent said access to their medical records was the single most important piece of information-sharing.”

We recommend the book The Tyranny of Choice, by Renata Salecl.