Testimony of Gail Shearer
Director, Health Policy Analysis
Washington Office
CONSUMERS UNION
Before the
Joint Economic Committee
On
Impact of “Consumer-Driven” Health Care on Consumers
February 25, 2004
Employers, who provide health insurance for about 60 percent of the U.S.
population, are increasingly under pressure to constrain their spending on health
insurance premiums, which have been growing in recent years at an annual rate of 5 to 8 percent. This pressure is aggravated by the recent weakness in the economy. One way to reduce the employer premiums for health insurance, and to make payments more predictable, is to switch to a “defined contribution” approach to health insurance, similar to the shift in recent decades from defined benefit pensions to defined contribution pensions.
