Health insurance exchanges explained

The reform of health care industry proposed by President Barack Obama last year has featured a new type of services called insurance exchanges. These services are designed to create a common marketplace for insurance services, where the customers would be able to shop around for different plans, learn more about this type of insurance and quickly apply for any plan they will find attractive.

Upon passing the law onto signing there were already a couple of working insurance exchanges in New York, Utah and Massachusetts. There were also attempts to create such exchanges in two other states but they have been confirmed to fail because they didn't succeed in meeting the initial purpose they were created for.

However, after the proposed health care reform health insurance exchanges will be implemented in all states under federal government supervision and the implementation will also be looked after in order to avoid any failures.

A good example of an exchange can be found in Georgia, where the marketplace was taken online and put on georgiahealthinfo.com. This website provides all Georgia residents with detailed information on local providers and all available plans within the state. It also features an easy-to-understand insurance vocabulary, information on government-sponsored alternatives for special groups of citizens and other helpful information that is called to improve the overall knowledge of the subject in order to avoid misuse of health insurance.


The legislation requires the exchanges to be provided in a comprehensive form using simple to understand language that would eliminate any possibility of misinterpreting the plan contents and receiving inadequate coverage. It's also proposed to provide results in a random manner so that that there wouldn't be any preference to particular providers. The main intent is to provide unbiased and comprehensive information about health insurance to the consumer and allow accountability of the industry in general by the federal government.

If the insurance exchange model proves to be successful it will become the common place for customers to shop around for insurance. Knowing that in a couple of years after the reform will be completely in force people will be charged penalties for not having a health insurance plan, having such a developed marketplace as insurance exchanges will definitely benefit all the parties involved. And just like people use a multitude of quote comparison websites these days for finding competitive health insurance plans, exchanges will be used for the same purpose but with a greater degree of reliability and under government supervision, which will definitely benefit the consumer.

Some people will find insurance exchanges very similar to insurance brokers in their basic functions. And for some people the individual approach a person will offer is more comfortable than a common market where they have to find the plans themselves. So, some customers will definitely be disappointed by the introduction of exchanges as mandatory elements for insuring their health. Either way, it's a firm step forward to creating comfortable conditions for the majority of Americans when they need to find a plan to insure their health with.