One of our favorite bloggers, Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters, hosted last week’s Health Wonk Review. There are lots of articles that will get your blood boiling (if it isn’t already, with the record-setting heat across the country this summer). I’ve been reading a lot lately about the details pertaining to the establishment of health insurance exchanges, so I found Anthony Wright’s article – “Emphasizing the Change in the Exchange” – particularly interesting. Anthony’s article is specific to the CA exchange, but his points can be applied to pretty much all states – including Colorado -in terms of what the exchanges should be aiming to provide. We need exchanges that are easy to navigate, accessible for people who are not fluent in English, and that provide seamless access to the subsidies that the PPACA provides to help people afford health insurance. I’ve already pointed out that we’re going to have to walk a fine line in terms of keeping things fair for both insureds and insurers, in order to attract as many enrollees and high quality insurers as possible to the exchanges. Getting as many people as possible into the exchanges early on is going to be one of the keys to success, as the exchanges will struggle if they have lower-than-projected enrollment numbers. Anthony points out that the exchanges will have the best odds if they have strong pre-enrollment strategies in place, to make sure that as many people as possible are enrolled on January 1, 2014. Definitely a good point, and one that other states would be wise to consider as well.
About Louise Norris
Louise Norris has been writing about health insurance and healthcare reform since 2006. In addition to the Colorado Health Insurance Insider, she also writes for healthinsurance.org, medicareresources.org, Verywell, Spark by ADP, and Boost by ADP, and Gusto. Follow on twitter and facebook.