Health Insurance Exchanges: Challenges and Opportunities

The Affordable Care Act requires individuals to obtain health insurance and employers to offer it, and many of the newly insured will likely turn to health insurance exchanges for coverage. These new virtual marketplaces will allow consumers and small businesses to comparison shop for affordable health insurance.

The law calls for all states to have an exchange, and both states and the federal government are busy getting them up and running to meet the October 1, 2013 deadline for open enrollment and the January 1, 2014 date for full-scale operations.

In this video interview, Jill Yegian, co-director of AIR’s Health Policy and Research Group, talks about the challenges and opportunities in creating exchanges. She also explains the differing roles of the states and federal government in setting them up and some keys to success.

“It has the potential to increase competition, increase quality, increase efficiency and make the entire insurance process much more easy and accessible for all kinds of different populations and individuals, including all of the previously uninsured who are now required to have coverage,” Yegian says. “It won’t be easy, but there is an unprecedented opportunity to make that happen in our new insurance marketplace.”