Interest in health insurance exchanges on the rise
Interest in health insurance exchanges is rising among health plan members, according to J.D. Power and Associates’ 2013 Member Health Plan Study published on March 11. Health plan members who purchase their own insurance, and those who have high deductibles or are unsatisfied with their current plans, expressed the most willingness to explore insurance exchanges, according to the study.
Roughly 73 percent of members who are self-insured say they "definitely will" or "probably will" shop for coverage using a state exchange, if available, said the study, which measured satisfaction among 33,000 members in 136 health plans across 17 U.S. regions. Other findings:
- Approximately 59 percent of health plan members said they had only one health plan to select when they enrolled.
- About 51 percent of members reported an increase in their premium cost over the past year.
- Interest in exchanges is highest in small companies (53 percent) followed by medium-sized (48 percent) and large (43 percent) companies.
Health members with negative service experiences also indicate an interest in possibly defecting to an insurance exchange. Those who have contacted their health plan regarding a problem during the past year (60 percent), compared with those who have not had a problem with their health plan (45 percent), showed an interest in health insurance exchanges, according to the study. Overall, 48 percent of health plan members (combining both group and individual markets) indicate they are interested in using a state exchange, if made available to them.
“The new insurance purchasing method intends to make it easier for members to access insurance and, ideally, at more competitive rates. The desire to reduce costs may also attract all types of members to the concept of exchange purchasing,” according to the J.D. Power and Associates announcement on the study.
The study also examined satisfaction with plans, and reported that members with the highest satisfaction are located in the Michigan, Texas and East South Central regions. The least satisfied health plan members reside in the Mountain and Colorado regions.