How Health Insurance Exchange Fit into Health Care Reform

How Health Insurance Exchange Fit into Health Care Reform

Some people see the implementation of health insurance exchanges as being a key component in health care reform. The reason for this is that health insurance exchanges give consumers options.

For example, if you receive your health care benefits through your employer, you basically only have two options. You either enroll in the plan chosen for you, or you do not enroll in that plan. There are not a lot of other options available to you. If you decide to not enroll in your employer-sponsored group health plan, then you have to navigate the private insurance market. This can be a complicated process. Also, in this market, the health insurance carriers have all of the power, and will deny or approve your application based on your health.

In the future, health insurance exchange will do a lot to alleviate some of those problems. Health insurance carriers will be prohibited from basing premiums or approval on pre-existing medical conditions. New health insurance policies in the future will have a standard required comprehensive set of benefits. More importantly, all of these plans, policies, and companies will list their information on health insurance exchanges.

Consumers will go to these health insurance exchanges and will be able to find a wide array of competing