Popularity of Private Health Insurance Rises in United States

Pharmaceutical Processing reported that according to private consulting firm Accenture, the number of Americans who enrolled in private health insurance for their 2015 employee benefits doubled from 2014 to 2015.

Numbers are only expected to increase moving forward, with 22 million people projected to sign up for private health insurance in 2017.

As quoted in the market news:

The Accenture study predicts companies will switch to the private health insurance option because of: the ‘Cadillac’ tax of 40 percent on employer health plans, which starts in 2018; growing market funding; looming mandate and a maturing market; and compliance burdens.

Scott Brown, co-author of Accenture’s private exchange research, said:

Consumers’ latent demand for choice and flexibility in a retail-like shopping environment, paired with notable early successes, have contributed to the 6 million that enrolled in private health insurance exchanges this year. Midsize employers with 100 to 2,500 employees drove enrollment growth for 2015, as evidenced by the expansion of the consultant-led exchanges servicing this market.

Click here to read the full Pharmaceutical Processing report.