Which consumers are ready for consumer-directed health plans?

Consumer Directed Health Plans (CDHPs) are new and increasingly popular insurance products in the United States that aim to increase consumer involvement in health care decision-making. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, we examine characteristics of employees in a large firm that voluntarily enroll in CDHPs. We find salaried and hourly high deductible CDHP enrollees to be substantially healthier and have higher educational attainment than Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO) enrollees. There was less favorable selection into a more popular, lower deductible CDHP.