Types of Health Plans Offered Through the Minnesota Health Insurance Exchange

5. The types of health plans to be offered through the exchange, and the extent to which these plans should be available for purchase only through the exchange

In considering the issues related to sales inside vs. outside of the exchange, the most important issue is that if a health insurance product is sold both inside and outside of the exchange, its price should be identical in both places. The focus group research conducted for this study highlighted concerns about whether the exchange would limit choice of products in the marketplace, and also concerns about employers being forced to use the exchange.

One of the simplest ways to address these concerns is to allow for sales both inside and outside of the exchange, and to require health plans to make all of their individual/small group products available for purchase through the exchange at the same price as they are sold outside of the exchange. This option ensures that people who want to buy coverage through the exchange do not have limited choices, while addressing the concerns of employers that do not want to be forced to purchase coverage only through the exchange.

One disadvantage of this option is that it becomes more difficult for the exchange to help consumers sift through their available options to make good choices about the health insurance coverage that is best for them. For example, in Massachusetts the Health Insurance Connector limits the number of plans sold inside the Connector and ranks them as gold, silver, or bronze based on their prices and benefit sets. Both the limited number of plans and the ranking system make the consumer's task of choosing a plan easier. Despite the fact that the proposed Minnesota exchange would not limit the number of products available, it should still be feasible for the exchange to rank available products based on their prices and benefit sets.