CDHP advocates play high-stakes game

Consumer-driven healthcare has the potential to reshape the industry in positive ways, but if it's handled badly, it could generate a regulatory backlash over the next decade. That's the one of the key conclusions drawn by participants at a recent symposium run by Goldman Sachs and Diamond Management & Technology Consultants. At present, Goldman Sachs estimates that the number of lives covered by consumer-directed health plans will grow from under 4 million in 2005 to 49 million by 2010. The long-term shift to CDHPs, they note, is being driven by cost-cutting employers rather than the self-insured and uninsured consumers who have fueled such models in the past. Like other players, the firms expect to see a robust "health/wealth" infrastructure emerge to support CDHPs, linking up bank, payor and consumer data into one accessible data network.

Rather than being left behind, industry stakeholders should definitely participate in the development of emerging CDHP market. Otherwise, consumer-driven forces could unbalance the system in ways that trigger universal healthcare legislation, or other significant mandated industry changes, they suggest. 

Get the firm's other health market projections:
- check out the press release