Private insurance companies are starting to make plans about how to get their products before the eyes of consumers in 2014, when the health insurance exchanges are expected to appear. Many are making plans to place kiosks inside retail stores. This could help consumers and insurers connect.
The health insurance exchanges are supposed to be ready to be used in 2014. Some states have been working on setting up their exchanges, and other states have been resisting it. Private insurance companies are starting to work on setting up their own private exchanges, in order to get ahead of things a little bit.
Some of this will take the form of online websites that compare different insurance plans and that show their prices. The other way this will take shape is in the form of kiosks. This is a brand new idea that hasn’t been done before. Consumers could go to the kiosks, which will not be run by an individual insurance company, in order to find a health insurance plan that best fits the needs of their families.
The kiosks will be set up inside grocery stores, and potentially in big chain stores such as Walmart. There are many reasons for choosing these types of locations. One reason is convenience. Consumers are already going to grocery stores on a regular basis. They wouldn’t have to make a special trip somewhere to check out an exchange. This brings more potential customers to the insurers.
Another reason is because many grocery stores have their own pharmacies inside of them. This could mean that a consumer that purchases health insurance through a kiosk in a certain grocery store could receive discounts on their prescription drugs that they buy from that store’s pharmacy.
If big stores like Walmart decide to get into the insurance business, things change. Perhaps, in the future, buying healthy foods from Walmart would translate into discounts on the health insurance premiums for the policy the person bought through a kiosk at Walmart.
Of course, much of this is speculation right now. There are some problems that need to be worked out. I’m unsure what will happen to these proposed kiosks if the Supreme Court decides that the mandatory insurance requirement is unconstitutional. Changes will need to be made to the way that insurers keep data on their computers, in order for information to be combined in a meaningful, useful, way, at the kiosks. It’s an interesting idea, but it remains to be seen how well it will work.
Image by Amanda Govaert on Flickr