Consumer-driven health care marketing.

In this article, a health care marketing executive takes an opposing view: That the consumer will not only continue to exercise choice but also, at annual renewal time, veto power. In part, that is because the consumers are feeling the rising cost of health care much more directly than in the past, through ever-higher premiums, deductibles and copayments. As they assumed more of the burden of medical care delivery, consumers are becoming more knowledgeable about and discriminating toward the health care system and provider plans they are offered. They understand--as does their employer--that no longer are all health care plans alike or at parity with each other. The consumer is also demanding greater access to freedom of provider choice, quality of health care coverage.