Shopping for Health Insurance. What else should we know about buying behavior? (part 3 of 3)

HHS ASPE’s “Premium Affordability, Competition, and Choice in the Health Insurance Marketplace, 2014” (June 18, 2014) provides additional analysis of the newly insureds’ plan choices and premium costs by geographic market. In other words, it describes buying behavior. But what else should we know?

• How many newly insured enrolled in plans that met their needs? The majority of uninsureds enrolled in a silver plan—one of lowest premium plans given financial subsidies—but not necessarily the one that best provided access to care, benefit coverage, or total cost given their usage of medical services and personal preferences.
• Where did consumers shop for health insurance? We know enrollment numbers through the public marketplaces, but not insurance carriers or private exchanges (e.g., eHealth and GoHealth) except for any results they’ve published. While these consumers may not have qualified for subsidies, their buying behavior is important to understand.
• Who did NOT enroll in health insurance, and why? Millions remain uninsured. Some registered on the marketplaces and never enrolled, while others never registered. Many will seek charity care at emergency rooms and community clinics at great financial burden to themselves and the health system. We need to understand if their behavior was due to monthly premium, plan design, network issues, or some other reason.

The offseason is the opportunity for public marketplaces and health plans to learn as much as possible about buying behavior (or lack thereof) during the 2014 open enrollment season. By doing so, they can better attract and retain health insurance consumers during the upcoming enrollment with “product and price” that meet their personal and financial needs, as well as an improved shopping experience.