What do consumers want and need to know in making health care choices?

This article assesses the presumption that consumer choice in health care i s based on a rational weighing of alternatives-that informing consumers abo ut plan or provider performance, when coupled with information on cost plus service scope and limitations, will lead consumers to select high-quality, law-priced plans or providers. The authors review research on what health care consumers know, what they want to know, and what others think they sho uld know. They also consider how people use information in making decisions and what this implies for what consumers really need to know to make effec tive decisions. The article concludes that assuming a rational consumer doe s not account for choice among options in the increasingly complex health c are context facing consumers today. Based on this review, the article ident ifies gaps in the knowledge and sketches out a prospective research agenda in the area of consumer health care decision making.