Increasing choice while decreasing costs is not a dream. Read on for a real-world success story.

When we saw the November issue of Health Affairs focus on “Merging Rural And Urban ACA Rating Areas Improved Choice, Premiums In Rural Texas” by Simon Haeder and his colleagues at Texas A&M University, we appreciated seeing an example of the impact our work at Wild Blue can make. The article examines the impact of Texas recently revising its Affordable Care Act (ACA) rating areas to integrate rural areas into urban markets for rating purposes. Wild Blue did the research for the Texas Health Improvement Network (THIN) which we then presented to Texas Department of Insurance and helped explain to health plans and other stakeholders.

Successes like this are one of the most fulfilling moments in our work as experts focused on solving health system challenges. Thank you, Dr. David Lakey (head of Texas Health Improvement Network/THIN) and Eileen Nehme (Epidemiologist at UT at the time, now retired) for collaborating with us, and R. Michael Markham, Chief Actuary at Texas Department of Insurance, for driving the process.

As you will see in the article (pdf available here), the authors find that “bundling urban and rural ACA rating areas in Texas significantly improved carrier and plan choice, as well as overall premiums for rural consumers” and underscore that adjusting geographic catchment for the ACA Marketplace areas could expand access to health care for rural consumers and decrease premiums.

More choice, fewer dollars – dreams really do come true.