Can Colorado make the health insurance exchange user friendly?

A trio of public advocacy groups released findings from their focus groups and consumer surveys on what people want and need to effectively use the Colorado Health Benefits Exchange, the key portal for many uninsured under the Affordable Care Act.

The portal needs to open this coming fall in order to have consumers signed up for insurance plans beginning Jan. 1, 2014. The exchange is where individuals and small businesses or nonprofits will learn about affordable (they hope) insurance plans, how they compare, and what it will cost after any available federal subsidies. To successfully draw in potentially hundreds of thousands of people who are currently uninsured, underinsured or simply unhappy with the plan they get through other means, the exchange must have a consumer friendly design and help people navigate a deeply complex system. It must welcome everyone from the extremely sharp and frustrated small business owner, to uninsured patients long out of the system who may have language issues, literacy issues or a general low tolerance for maneuvering in a bureaucracy.

What consumers need most from the health insurance exchange (Credit: handout from consumer advocacy groups)

Some of the early work in designing a system falls to the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, the Colorado Center on Law and Policy, and the Colorado Public Interest Research Group Foundation. They have been gatherings reactions, advice and demands, and on Monday released some of their findings.

To me the most striking thing about today?s release is the graphic above about what people think they need on the site to help make their decisions. Under ?Consumer Exchange website needs,? the first suggestion is a TurboTax style interaction, and that seems exactly right: A smart web site would begin with a simple series of questions for the customer, and go deeper depending on the answers. If the customer can?t handle it by themselves, a trained navigator sits with them and goes through the questions: ?Do you currently have insurance? Are you single, or with a family? Will your employer offer insurance? Do you want dollar one coverage, or a high deductible? Do you want to use your current doctor, or is saving money more important? Are extra mental health benefits important to you? How much income do you expect next year?? And then, very soon, a calculation of how much federal tax subsidy will qualify for, and how much of their monthly income will be taken up by the proposed health policies.

Everyone has seen bad software, at home or work, that requires you to be a programmer yourself to do routine tasks. The health exchange needs to keep thinking like TurboTax, or better yet, keep asking, ?WWSJD?? What would Steve Jobs do? Or have done? He would have kept it simple, and reminded everybody at every step of the process about the confused consumer sitting at the terminal on the other end of the Internet.

Follow the link above to see the graphic presentations in greater detail, with a wide range of questions and recommendations.

Source: http://blogs.denverpost.com/health/2013/01/14/colorado-health-insurance-exchange-user-friendly/2491/

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