Choosing health insurance is TOUGH!
It uses a complex jargon.
People are asked to predict rare events and combine probabilities and use cases.
There are many distinctive elements of choice whose weight varies between and within people over time.
And that is the best case choice scenario.
We then often layer in administrative complexities on top of that. I’ve been doing a lot of work on the administrative burdens of health insurance choice over the past few years. Our big finding from our zero-premium paper is that zero is not particularly different in shaping what choices people make but it matters a lot on enrollment as it eliminates a friction point. Other researchers have found that the process of enrolling and maintaining enrollment is a challenge.
Massachusetts runs their own ACA marketplace, the Masschusetts Health Connector. The state is trying to figure out where the pain points are and then coming up with solutions to minimize those pain points:
@Cutler_econ @onceuponA Administrative costs are a burden to all. They raise costs and distort behaviors. Kudos to @HealthConnector for efforts (w/ @ManattHealth to reduce them. See https://t.co/4jRwKgoOzH pic.twitter.com/3ZhDttlWLF
— Michael Chernew (@Michael_Chernew) November 28, 2022
I know several other states are trying to do this as well. This is one of the advantages of running a state based marketplace. The state can customize their work flow and the process much more readily than Healthcare.gov. Healthcare.gov is also attempting to minimize burdens as a an enrollment boosting measure that does not need Congressional action. However, states should have far cleaner long term incentives as it is a way to get federal money into the state while covering more people without spending state general fund dollars. I expect that the states that run their own markets, blue and red, will be more effective at iterating and experimenting to reduce burdens over the next couple of years.
Lobo
I think one way is to develop a model plan that people could use to compare with. Knowing the complexity of health care, I realize it is a big lift. But people don’t even know what are the top things they should consider. It is such a blob to everyone to the point that zero premiums and low deductibles are the only way to make comparisons.
eldorado
do you know anyone that needs another unpaid part time job doing healthcare paperwork? me either.
issue everyone a card. show the card to the medical clinic or doctor. everything else layered on top of that is just another reason to hate democrats, no matter how much ‘better’ it works
David Anderson
@eldorado: tell me how to get to 218-51-1-5
Until then technocratic tinkering is the plausible improvement zone
eldorado
we get to that number by making the program easy to use, which is why i continue to stress this point.
i’m in a deep red state where parts of my family (including myself) have access to tribal healthcare, medicare, ACA and employer provided. the ACA is thoroughly hated, and it’s hassle factor is a big part of it.
Miss Bianca
I must say that I am grateful that Colorado has a state-based health marketplace, and that that plus an independent insurance broker has made plan shopping a lot less painful for yours truly.
StringOnAStick
@Miss Bianca: Same for us, but in Oregon.