Part of the credit for surprisingly strong enrollment in the ACA marketplace this season probably should go to the smooth functioning of HealthCare.gov, the federal online marketplace that serves 39 states.
In the runup to open enrollment, market watchers wondered whether hostility to the ACA at the top of HHS and CMS would extend to the website's functioning. Three weeks prior to kickoff, though, I noted that the information flow from the HealthCare.gov home page was effective, steering people both to the plan preview tool and to a quick determination whether they'd likely be eligible for Medicaid or subsidies.
On November 1 (launch day) the "see plans and prices" option disappeared from the home page. The "see plans" tool enables a user to anonymously enter a handful of data points (zip code, ages of household members, income) and see a complete menu of available health plans, with prices that include the user's estimated subsidy. Its near invisibility led (some weeks later) to Twitter chatter about possible sabotage. I noted that the preview tool had also been submerged in previous open enrollments -- which had baffled and frustrated me from early 2015 on. At which point Joshua Peck, HealthCare.gov's Chief Marketing Officer before the Trump administration took office, weighed in:
Dec 9While counterintuitive, more consumers are more likely to ultimately find a plan and enroll if they go through the app vs. See Plans. It's not an evil plot, though when I look for it myself it can feel that way.That led to a phone conversation. The "see plans and prices" feature is a terrific tool. It takes less than a minute to get a sense of what you need to pay for coverage. Since multiple surveys show that large percentages of the uninsured do not know what kind or degree of financial help is available to them, the plan preview tool has always struck me as particularly valuable.
