Who had the toughest PPACA exchange competition?

Politics, enrollment system glitches and plan administration glitches aside, where did public health insurance exchange system users have the best choice of health plans?

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) tried to answer that question for members of Congress and found that different approaches to analyzing competition data produced different results.

The analysts looked at both state-based Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) exchanges and exchanges run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The average individual exchange had six participating qualified health plan (QHP) issuers, including three issuers who were new to the state’s individual market. Those QHP issuers had an average total share of 57 percent of the state’s individual health insurance market in 2012.

In the small-group market, the average exchange had four QHP issuers and one new issuer. The QHP issuers had a 56 percent share of the state’s 2012 small-group market.

See also: 19 PPACA exchange gorillas: 9 are pushing rates higher in 2015