A key part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the Health Insurance Marketplace, where people can shop for and enroll in private health insurance coverage. To help the public understand this new option, the law requires employers to provide employees with a notice about health insurance marketplaces. This notice must be provided within 14 days of the start date of employment. The Massachusetts Health Connector has developed a streamlined template for use by Massachusetts employers to satisfy this requirement, available here.
To study the effectiveness of different ways to present this information, we conducted a randomized controlled trial. Individuals who were randomly assigned to receive one of 8 letters received by mail over the course of the open enrollment period exhibited significantly greater ACA marketplace enrollment relative to the control group that did not receive any letter. The effect was larger among racial and ethnic minorities, with increases in enrollment of up to 14% (p 0.001).
This research provides evidence that low-cost outreach, particularly messages informed by the behavioral sciences, can increase ACA marketplace coverage take-up. This finding is important given ongoing barriers to marketplace enrollment, including cost, application complexity, procrastination, a lack of awareness about available options, choice overload, and inertia. The findings of this research can inform current policy discussions about how best to increase ACA marketplace enrollment.
SITES WE SUPPORT
SOCIAL LINKS
コメント