Though the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services have stated that the insurance exchanges will provide affordable coverage to individuals who don't have employee benefits, a new study suggests that the policies consumers purchase through these marketplaces will often be more expensive than they need to be.
The average consumer could wind up wasting about $600 in a 12-month period by buying a health plan through one of the state-based exchanges, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Columbia School. The reason why, according to the authors, is because many people often purchase health policies not knowing what their needs are beforehand. As a result, they frequently wind up buying coverage at a price that is unnecessarily costly.
Taxpayers may wind up paying for others' mistakes, the report indicated. Because the government makes subsidies available to people who are eligible, Americans could pay as much as $9 billion, all because of miscalculations that consumers made buying plan extras.
"Consumers' failure to identify the most appropriate plan has considerable consequences on both their pocketbooks as well as the cost of the overall system," said Eric Johnson, co-director of Columbia Business School's Center for Decision Sciences, and also one of the report's lead authors. "If consumers can't identify the most cost-efficient plan for their needs, the exchanges will fail to produce competitive pressures on healthcare providers and bring down costs across the board, one of the main advantages of relying upon choice and markets."
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, as many as 60 percent of Americans will be able to buy coverage for no more than $100 per month, through financial assistance provided by the government.
