Washington, DC, March 16, 2010 – Consumers want more competition and believe that increased competition would result in lower consumer prices, according to ACI’s 2010 Consumer Pulse Survey. The survey of 1,000 households found that 70.4% of consumers support enacting a law that would allow insurance companies to compete across state borders, while 16.9% of consumers would oppose such a law and 12.7% were not sure. The latest survey also found that 65.4% of consumers believed that this would lead to lower prices, with 18.9% citing higher prices, 4.3% seeing no change in prices and 11.4% not knowing the impact. The national survey has an accuracy of plus or minus 3%.
Today’s results are consistent with other survey findings. For instance, based on an ACI survey earlier this year on health insurance, 79% of consumers supported allowing providers to compete across state borders. In 2009, 76.2% of consumers supported federal legislation to allow state and interstate companies to compete, and 73% believed that this added competition would lead to lower prices. In addition, earlier ACI surveys found that the majority of consumers also supported allowing families to keep their insurance company and broker if they moved into a neighboring state.
In summary, the results of the latest survey are consistent for earlier results and show that consumers support choice and increased competition.