Fig. 1

The distribution of respondents’ preferences across three discrete choice experiment (DCE) tables, each offering two alternative options (A, B) and a “current situation” option, which represents the default where the health plan selects the provider on behalf of the patient. The figure explores respondents’ preferences for different healthcare attribute trade-offs: hospital type (HT), distance (D) from the respondent’s residence and appointment availability (WT). See Box 1 and Table 1 for attribute definitions and levels