Monahan Christine H, Dash Sarah J, Lucia Kevin W, Corlette Sabrina
Issue Brief (Commonw Fund). 2013 Dec;34:1-13.
The new health insurance marketplaces aim to improve consumers' purchasing experiences by setting uniform coverage levels for health plans and giving them tools to explore their options. Marketplace administrators may choose to limit the number and type of plans offered to further simplify consumer decision-making. This issue brief examines the policies set by some state-based marketplaces to simplify plan choices: adopting a meaningful difference standard, limiting the number of plans or benefit designs insurers may offer, or requiring standardized benefit designs. Eleven states and the District of Columbia took one or more of these actions for 2014, though their policies vary in terms of their prescriptiveness. Tracking the effects of these different approaches will enhance understanding of how best to enable consumers to make optimal health insurance purchasing decisions and set the stage for future refinements.
新的医疗保险市场旨在通过为健康保险计划设定统一的覆盖水平并为消费者提供探索其选择的工具，来改善消费者的购买体验。市场管理者可以选择限制所提供计划的数量和类型，以进一步简化消费者的决策过程。本问题简报探讨了一些基于州的市场为简化计划选择而制定的政策：采用有意义差异标准、限制保险公司可提供的计划数量或福利设计，或要求标准化的福利设计。2014年，11个州和哥伦比亚特区采取了上述一项或多项行动，尽管它们的政策在规定性方面有所不同。追踪这些不同方法的效果将增进我们对如何最好地使消费者做出最佳医疗保险购买决策的理解，并为未来的改进奠定基础。
