A large majority of non-elderly adults says that the most important reason to have insurance is to protect against high medical bills (71%), rather than to pay for everyday health care expenses (25%).

The cost of a health plan, choice of doctors, and range of benefits are each important factors to people when choosing or evaluating a health plan. However, when forced to choose the most important feature in a plan, about a third (35%) choose cost factors, 30% choose “a wide range of benefits”, and 27% choose “a wide choice of doctors and hospitals”. Perhaps not surprisingly, those with lower incomes are more likely to choose cost as the most important factor.