Age and the Purchase of Prescription Drug Insurance by Older Adults

Psychology and Aging

Volumn 26, Issue 2, 2011, Pages 308-320

  Szrek, Helena ^a   Bundorf, M Kate ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF PORTO   (Portugal)

^b STANFORD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Aging; Choice; Cognitive reflection; Medicare; Numeracy

Indexed keywords

PRESCRIPTION DRUG;

AGE; AGED; ARTICLE; COGNITION; FEMALE; HEALTH PROGRAM; HUMAN; INSURANCE; MAJOR CLINICAL STUDY; MALE; MATHEMATICAL PHENOMENA; MEDICAL DECISION MAKING; MEDICARE; SIMULATION;

AGE FACTORS; AGED; APTITUDE; CHOICE BEHAVIOR; COGNITION; DECISION MAKING; FEMALE; FINANCING, PERSONAL; HEALTH CARE SURVEYS; HUMANS; INSURANCE, PHARMACEUTICAL SERVICES; MALE; MATHEMATICS; MEDICARE PART D; SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS; UNITED STATES;

EID: 79959316000     PISSN: 08827974     EISSN: 19391498     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1037/a0023169     Document Type: Article

References (61)

1. Abaluck, J. T., & Gruber, J. (in press). Choice inconsistencies among the elderly: Evidence from plan choice in the Medicare Part D Program. American Economic Review.
2. Baltes M.M., Carstensen L.L. The process of successful ageing. Ageing and Society 1996, 16:397-422. doi: 10.1017/S0144686X00003603.
3. Baltes P.B. Theoretical propositions of life-span developmental psychology: On the dynamics between growth and decline. Developmental Psychology 1987, 23:611-696. doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.23.5.611.
4. Baltes P.B. On the incomplete architecture of human ontogeny: Selection, optimization, and compensation as foundation of developmental theory. American Psychologist 1997, 52:366-380. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.52.4.366.
5. Baltes P.B., Baltes M.M. Psychological perspectives on successful aging: The model of selective optimization with compensation. Successful aging: Perspectives from the behavioral sciences 1990, 1-34. Cambridge University Press, New York, doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511665684.003. P.B. Baltes, M.M. Baltes (Eds.).
6. Baltes P.B., Lindenberger U. Emergence of a powerful connection between sensory and cognitive functions across the adult life span: A new window to the study of cognitive aging?. Psychology and Aging 1997, 12:12-21. doi: 10.1037/0882-7974.12.1.12.
7. Baron J. Thinking and deciding 2008, Cambridge University Press, New York. 4th ed.
8. Botti S., Iyengar S.S. The Dark Side of Choice: When Choice Impairs Social Welfare. Journal of Public Policy and Marketing 2006, 25:24-38. doi: 10.1509/jppm.25.1.24.
9. Bown N., Read D., Summers B. The lure of choice. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 2003, 16:297-308. doi: 10.1002/bdm.447.
10. Bruine de Bruin, W., Parker, A. M., & Fischhoff, B. (in press). Explaining adult age differences in decision-making competence. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making.
11. Bundorf M.K. Employee demand for health insurance and employer health plan choices. Journal of Health Economics 2002, 21:65-88. doi: 10.1016/S0167-6296(01)00127-8.
12. Bundorf M.K., Szrek H. Choice set size and decision making: The case of Medicare Part D prescription drug plans. Medical Decision Making 2010, 30:582-593. doi: 10.1177/0272989X09357793.
13. Busse E.W. Senescence and senility. Normal ageing III: Reports from the Duke longitudinal studies, 1975-1984 1985, 106-123. Duke University Press, Durham, NC. E. Palmore, E.W. Busse, G.L. Maddox, J.B. Nowlin, I.C. Siegler (Eds.).
14. Carstensen L.L., Hartel C.R. When I'm 64. Committee on Aging Frontiers in Social Psychology, Personality, and Adult Developmental Psychology 2006, The National Academies Press, Washington, DC.
15. Carstensen L.L., Isaacowitz D.M., Charles S.T. Taking time seriously: A theory of socioemotional selectivity. American Psychologist 1999, 54:165-181. doi: 10.1037/0003-066X.54.3.165.
16. Cokely E.T., Kelley C.M. Cognitive abilities and superior decision making under risk: A protocol analysis and process model evaluation. Judgment and Decision Making 2009, 4:20-33.
17. Cooper P., Schone B.S. More offers, fewer takers for employment-based health insurance: 1987 and 1996. Health Affairs 1997, 16:142-149. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.16.6.142.
18. Dixon R.A. Contextual approaches to adult intellectual development. Intellectual development 1992, 350-380. Cambridge, New York. R.J. Sternberg, C.A. Berg (Eds.).
19. Finucane M.L., Mertz C.K., Slovic P., Schmidt E.S. Task complexity and older adults' decision-making competence. Psychology and Aging 2005, 20:71-84. doi: 10.1037/0882-7974.20.1.71.
20. Finucane M.L., Slovic P., Hibbard J.H., Peters E., Mertz C.K., Macgregor D.G. Aging and decision making competence: An analysis of comprehension and consistency skills in older versus younger adults considering health-plan options. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making 2002, 15:141-164. doi: 10.1002/bdm.407.
21. Frederick S. Cognitive reflection and decision making. Journal of Economic Perspectives 2005, 19:25-42. doi: 10.1257/089533005775196732.
22. Gigerenzer G., Todd P.M. Simple heuristics that make us smart 1999, the ABC Research Group, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
23. Hanoch Y., Rice T., Cummings J., Wood S. How much choice is too much? The case of the Medicare prescription drug benefit. Health Services Research 2009, 44:1157-1168. doi: 10.1111/j.1475-6773.2009.00981.x.
24. Hanoch Y., Wood S., Rice T. Bounded rationality, emotions and older adult decision making: Not so fast and yet so frugal. Human Development 2007, 50:334-359. doi: 10.1159/000109835.
25. Hargrave E., Hoadley J., Cubanski J., Neuman T. Medicare prescription drug plans in 2009 and key changes since 2006: Summary of findings 2009, Kaiser Family Foundation, Washington, D.C., June. Retrieved from www.kff.org/medicare/upload/7917.pdf.
26. Hess, T. M., Queen, T. L., & Patterson, T. (in press). To deliberate or not to deliberate: Interactions between age, task characteristics, and cognitive activity on decision making. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making.
27. Hibbard J.H., Jewett J.J., Engelmann S., Tusler M. Can Medicare beneficiaries make informed choices?. Health Affairs 1998, 17:181-193. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.17.6.181.
28. Hibbard J.H., Slovic P., Peters E., Finucane M.L., Tusler M. Is the informed-choice policy approach appropriate for Medicare beneficiaries?. Health Affairs 2001, 20:199-203. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.20.3.199.
29. Iyengar S.S., Lepper M.R. When choice is demotivating: Can one desire too much of a good thing?. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2000, 79:995-1006. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.79.6.995.
30. Kling, J., Mullainathan, S., Shafir, E., Vermeulen, L., & Wrobel, M. V. (2009). Misperception in choosing Medicare drug plans. Unpublished manuscript, Harvard University. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/~kling.
31. Levy H., Weir D. Take-up of Medicare Part D: Results from the Health and Retirement Study. Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences 2010, 65B:492-501. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbp107.
32. Lipkus I.M., Samsa G., Rimer B.K. General performance on a numeracy scale among highly educated samples. Medical Decision Making 2001, 21:37-44. doi: 10.1177/0272989X0102100105.
33. Löckenhoff C.E., Carstensen L.L. Socioemotional selective theory, aging, and health: The increasingly delicate balance between regulating emotions and making tough choices. Journal of Personality 2004, 72:1395-1424. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2004.00301.x.
34. Mata R., Nunes L. When less is enough: Cognitive aging, information search, and decision quality in consumer choice. Psychology and Aging 2009, 25:289-298. doi: 10.1037/a0017927.
35. Mata R., Schooler L.J., Rieskamp J. The aging decision maker: Cognitive aging and the adaptive selection of decision strategies. Psychology and Aging 2007, 22:796-810. doi: 10.1037/0882-7974.22.4.796.
36. Mather M. A review of decision making processes: Weighing the risks and benefits of aging. When I'm 64. Committee on Aging Frontiers in Social Psychology, Personality, and Adult Developmental Psychology 2006, 145-173. The National Academies Press, Washington, DC. L.L. Carstensen, C.R. Hartel (Eds.).
37. Mikels J.A., Löckenhoff C.E., Maglio S.J., Goldstein M.K., Garber A., Carstensen L.L. Following your heart or your head: Focusing on emotions versus information differentially influences the decisions of younger and older adults. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied 2010, 16:87-95. doi: 10.1037/a0018500.
38. Mikels J.A., Reed A., Simon K. Older adults state lower willingness to pay for choice than young adults. Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences 2009, 64B:443-446. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbp021.
39. Payne J.W., Bettman J.R., Johnson E.J. The adaptive decision maker 1993, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.
40. Peters, E., & Bruine de Bruin, W. (In press). Aging and decision skills. In M. K. Dhami, A., Schlottmann, & M. Waldmann (Eds), Judgment and decision making as a skill: Learning, development, and evolution. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.
41. Peters E., Hess T.M., Västfjäll D., Auman C. Adult age differences in dual information processing: Implications for the role of affective and deliberate processes in older adults' decision making. Perspectives on Psychological Science 2007, 2:1-23. doi: 10.1111/j.1745-6916.2007.00025.x.
42. Peters E., Hibbard J., Slovic P., Dieckmann N. Numeracy skill and the communication, comprehension, and use of risk-benefit information. Health Affairs 2007, 26:741-748. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.26.3.741.
43. Peters E., Västfjäll D., Slovic P., Mertz C.K., Mazzocco K., Dickert S. Numeracy and decision making. Psychological Science 2006, 17:407-413. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01720.x.
44. Queen T., Hess T. Age differences in the effects of conscious and unconscious thought in decision making. Psychology and Aging 2010, 25:251-261. doi: 10.1037/a0018856.
45. Reed A., Mikels J., Simon K. Older adults prefer less choice than young adults. Psychology and Aging 2008, 23:671-675. doi: 10.1037/a0012772.
46. Reutskaja E., Hogarth R. Satisfaction in choice as a function of the number of alternatives: When "goods satiate" but "bads escalate." Psychology and Marketing 2009, 26:197-203. doi: 10.1002/mar.20268.
47. Reyna V.F., Nelson W.L., Han P.K., Dieckmann N.F. How numeracy influences risk comprehension and medical decision making. Psychological Bulletin 2009, 135:943-973. doi: 10.1037/a0017327.
48. Salthouse T.A. Theoretical perspectives on cognitive aging 1991, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
49. Scanlon D.P., Chernew M., Lave J.R. Consumer health plan choice: current knowledge and future directions. Annual Review of Public Health 1997, 18:507-528. doi: 10.1146/annurev.publhealth.18.1.507.
50. Schaie, K. W. (1989). Individual differences in rate of cognitive change in adulthood. In V. L. Bengtson & K. W. Schaie (Eds.), The course of later life: Research and reflections (pp. 65-85).
51. Schaie K.W. The optimization of cognitive functioning in old age: Predictions based on cohort-sequential and longitudinal data. Successful aging: Perspectives from the behavioral sciences 1990, 94-117. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. P.B. Baltes, M.M. Baltes (Eds.).
52. Scheibehenne B., Greifeneder R., Todd P.M. Can there ever be too many options? A meta-analytic review of choice overload. Journal of Consumer Research 2010, 37:409-425. doi: 10.1086/651235.
53. Schwartz B. The paradox of choice: Why more is less 2004, HarperCollins Publishers, New York. 1st ed.
54. Schwartz L.M., Woloshin S., Black W.C., Welch H.G. The role of numeracy in understanding the benefit of screening mammography. Annals of Internal Medicine 1997, 127:966-972.
55. Simon K.I., Lucarelli C. What drove first year premiums in stand-alone Medicare drug plans?. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 12595 2006, Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w12595.
56. Strough J., Margrett J. Overview of the special section on collaborative cognition in later adulthood. International Journal of Behavioral Development 2002, 26:2-5. doi: 10.1080/01650250143000300.
57. Szrek H., Baron J. The value of choice in insurance purchasing. Journal of Economic Psychology 2007, 28:529-544. doi: 10.1016/j.joep.2007.02.003.
58. Szrek, H., & Bundorf, M. K. (2011). Too smart to forgo: Cognitive ability and subsidized prescription drug insurance. Unpublished manuscript, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.
59. Tanius B.E., Wood S., Hanoch Y., Rice T. Aging and choice: Applications to Medicare Part D. Judgment and Decision Making 2009, 4:92-101.
60. Thaler R.H., Sunstein C.R. Nudge 2008, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
61. Tversky A., Shafir E. Choice under conflict: The dynamics of deferred decision. Psychological Science 1992, 3:358-361. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.1992.tb00047.x.