No matter what happens to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (2010), the trend toward individual and small group health coverage sales shifting to exchanges likely will continue.
Ross Stromberg, a health care advisor in the San Francisco office of PricewaterhouseCoopers L.L.P., gave that assessment today during an interview.
PricewaterhouseCoopers today released a collection of health care market predictions for 2012.
One is that that the new exchanges created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) will create both opportunities and challenges for health insurance players.
If PPACA takes effect as written and works as drafters expect, the PPACA exchanges are supposed to create “one stop shopping” services for individuals and small groups using the new tax credit subsidies created by PPACA.
Policymakers expect the exchanges to serve a significant but relatively small percentage of health coverage buyers, but Stromberg said that, in many cases, new and expanded private exchange programs could serve many of the buyers not shopping at the PPACA exchanges.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield carriers are showing increasing interest in selling through exchanges, Stromberg said.