Building a Better Health Care Marketplace: Negotiating for a Better Deal

Iowa PIRG

A well-made state exchange can help deliver lower costs for individuals and small businesses.  Just as big businesses negotiate with insurers, using the bargaining power of their employees to push for lower premiums, so too can exchange enrollees benefit from a muscular exchange that negotiates on their behalf for better choices and lower costs.

But to live up to this potential, the exchange will need to do more than simply take all insurers who want to sell their products to its enrollees.  It will have to take a close look at the benefits being offered, and the premiums and cost-sharing being charged, to assess whether they provide a good value. 

Based on that assessment, the exchange should then negotiate with insurers to offer lower cost, higher quality coverage options for consumers.  Similarly, the exchange should monitor year over year premium increases to ensure enrollees continue to get a good deal.  And because negotiating power and economies of scale depend on having a large pool of enrollees, the exchange should be made as large as possible.