The Affordable Care Act requires each state to provide a health insurance purchasing marketplace, which is an organization offering a competitive market for buying health insurance. Each Marketplace provides a choice of health plans through which individuals can shop to purchase health insurance on their own. Premium and cost-sharing subsidies may be provided through the Marketplace.
Some state Marketplaces are operated by the state. Other states have opted to use the federal Marketplace, which is www.healthcare.gov.
A recent report from the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) found that state-based Marketplaces have become successful in delivering health insurance to consumers and consistently outperform that states that use the federal www.healthcare.gov. Keeping the Marketplace with the state allows more marketing, more outreach, more insurance choices and lower costs.
The report provides many resources for analyzing and comparing Marketplace coverage. The resources may be accessed by clicking here.
