We are in open enrollment season for health insurance. The Medicare Annual Enrollment Period started last week. The Affordable Care Act Open Enrollment Period starts next week. Many companies are offering their employees an open enrollment period sometime soon.
I just want to highlight a few things.
1) CHOICE IS TOUGH — we have a great deal of very good evidence that choice is really tough. People routinely make objectively bad, dominated choices. People are subject to known and predictable cognitive biases. Some new research by Brot-Goldberg et al that used automatic re-assignment in Medicare Part D to show that people have extremely short duration intense attention spikes when they get hit with the equivalent of a 2×4 across the nose; otherwise inertia wins.
2) Get help! Insurance is complex and complicated. Most people shockingly don’t spend 40+ hours a week thinking about health insurance for a decade or more and find it interesting enough to get a PhD on the subject. Navigators and assisters are helpful as we speak a weird language that is complex even within our jargon. Brokers who are interested in long term relationships have strong incentives to make decent enough to good enough choices. Let’s talk in comments!
3) Satifice — Good enough can be more than good enough. Unless you are a medical trainwreck with a diagnosis history longer than a CVS receipt (Hi Mom!), you’re operating in a world of uncertainty. You don’t know for sure what next year could look like. Make reasonable guesses that are defined by your capability to absorb losses and value on different criteria (network, doctor relationships, ease of use, costs, predictability etc). The goal is not to get a perfect retrospective choice but a good enough prospective choice. Let’s avoid the absolutely hideous and bad choices and call it a good win.
4) Give yourself grace — this is a tough decision.