consumer-driven health care
an approach to health care cost containment that lets consumers decide how to spend dollars earmarked for health and mental health care. Instead of providing insurance with a low deductible for employees, an employer might fund a high-deductible insurance policy and a tax-advantaged account such as a health savings account, a health reimbursement account, or another medical payment product that consumers could use to help meet the high deductible. Because consumers can shop for and choose the doctors that they want to see and the procedures that they want done, this type of care is posited to bring competition to the health services market and more control to consumers, although the benefits and effectiveness of this arrangement are being debated.