Recent research also shows that the satisfaction level is higher among those adults.
A recent study published in JAMA Network Open showed that adult Americans with public health insurance coverage face lower costs and experience higher satisfaction than adults with private coverage.
The research involved a survey with 150,000 respondents comparing private and publicly sponsored plans.
The survey showed that when compared to adults with public health insurance coverage, Americans with private plans often face less access to services, lower satisfaction and higher costs for care. The respondents were all adults living in 17 states and Washington DC. The results also revealed that people with private insurance were more likely to face medical debt.
That said, the trend that shows publicly sponsored coverage has greater benefit than private plans becomes hazier when taking Medicaid into account. When comparing private plans with Medicaid, individuals covered by Medicaid frequently reported barriers to care relating to costs.
The findings from this private and public health insurance comparison are consistent with prior research.
“These data are consistent with findings from prior research, provide an update on U.S. adults’ experiences with private and public coverage and suggest that the experiences of individuals covered by private insurance compare less favorably with the experiences of individuals covered by publicly sponsored plans,” said researchers cited in the report and who are from or affiliated with the University of California, San Francisco who conducted the study.
The exact total of respondents was 149,290, among whom about 64 percent had private insurance coverage. The majority of the respondents with private coverage were younger, married adults who were employed and had a higher education level than their publicly insured counterparts. Among those with private coverage, about 80 percent said they had an employer-sponsored plan. Two thirds of publicly insured respondents were covered by Medicare and about a quarter were covered by Medicaid.
“As U.S. policymakers continue to debate health insurance reform, efforts directed at increasing the number of individuals covered by Medicare or improving 
protections for individuals covered by private insurance against increasing out-of-pocket costs, high deductibles and surprise billing may be associated with improved experience of and satisfaction with health care,” said the researchers that conducted this private and public health insurance comparison study.
