Too Much Choice=Worse Off

I was surprised--at first--to hear my mom say she was excited to be able to get back in touch with her Kaiser doctor last week. And then it all made too much sense.

Since my father works for the US government, he has some nice choices when choosing his benefits. They had been with Kaiser for years, and with it came the frustration that they lacked any choice of specialists. I finally convinced them to go with the PPO option, so they could choose whomever they wanted, and find the best specialist in their geographic region.

Unfortunately, it had the opposite intended affect: They were overwhelmed by the choices of doctors, and did not know how to narrow it down. So they did nothing. And last fall, come open enrollment, my parents quietly switched back to Kaiser, where the choice is made for them. All they need to do is make an appointment...and wait...and wait...and wait. But they don't have the stress of trying to decide who is best to address their health concerns, Kaiser has taken on that stress for them.

In the end, I know the option that makes them take action is the best for them. But it's hard to see the real life application of "too many jams" (see UCLA study by Schlomo Benartzi) on your own family. It would be nice to see a nationwide database that helped individuals narrow the choices down, but until then, I see virtue in the Kaiser model.