Jury still out on extent of employers' cost savings under managed care. An AMA policy research perspective.

President Clinton's Health Security Act as well as other proposals for national health system reform and state-level reform call for greater use of managed care to control employers' health care costs. Even without government intervention, the trend is for increased enrollment of employees into managed care plans as opposed to traditional indemnity plans. In fact, the proportion of private employees enrolled in managed care plans grew from 5% in 1980 to 55% (90 million persons) in 1992. Despite the increased reliance on managed care plans, little is known about their ability to limit costs and whether they pass any savings on to employers. This American Medical Association Policy Research Perspectives summarizes a recent report by the General Accounting Office (GAO) that discusses their review of the literature on managed care and interviews with insurers and more than 60 private employers between March 1992 and March 1993.