University of Toronto Reports Findings in Psychology (Giving more detailed information about health insurance encourages consumers to choose compromise options): Psychology

2023 DEC 18 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New research on Psychology is the subject of a report. According to news originating from Toronto, Canada, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “To investigate how the provision of additional information about the health events and procedures covered by a healthcare plan affect the level of coverage chosen by young adults taking their first full time job. University students were recruited for a study at two behavioral laboratories (one located at the University of Toronto and the other located at INSEAD-Sorbonne University in Paris) in which they imagine they are making choices about the healthcare coverage associated with the taking a new job in Chicago, Illinois.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the University of Toronto, “Every participant made choices in four categories: Physician Care, Clinical Care, Hospital Care, and Dental Care. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: Low Detail or High Detail coverage information and they chose between three levels of coverage: Basic, Enhanced, and Superior. The study took place in March 2017 with 120 students in Toronto and 121 students in Paris. The provision of more detailed information about the health events and procedures covered by a healthcare plan leads to a compromise effect in which participants shift their choices significantly towards Enhanced (moderate coverage) from Basic (low coverage) and Superior (high coverage). The compromise effect was observed at both locations; however, Paris participants choose significantly higher levels of coverage than Toronto participants. Providing more detail to employees about the health events and procedures covered by a healthcare plan will increase the fraction of employees who choose the intermediate level of coverage.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “It is beyond the scope of this study to conclude whether this is good or bad; however, in a context where employees gravitate to either insufficient or excessive coverage, providing additional detail may reduce these tendencies.”

For more information on this research see: Giving more detailed information about health insurance encourages consumers to choose compromise options. Frontiers in Psychology, 2023;14:1257031. Frontiers in Psychology can be contacted at: Frontiers Media Sa, Avenue Du Tribunal Federal 34, Lausanne, Ch-1015, Switzerland.

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from Scott A. Hawkins, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. Additional authors for this research include Stephen E. Chick and David Soberman.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1257031. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

The publisher’s contact information for the journal Frontiers in Psychology is: Frontiers Media Sa, Avenue Du Tribunal Federal 34, Lausanne, Ch-1015, Switzerland.

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