Source page: McKinsey & Company
Commentary
Pick your plan
Healthcare
May 18, 2023 – The US individual health insurance market has increasingly given consumers more options for insurers and products, according to analysis by partner Brandon Flowers and colleagues. By 2023, for example, just 4 percent of counties had access to only a single insurer, down from 52 percent five years ago. On average, a consumer can choose among five insurers and 88 plans in 2023, compared with three insurers and 27 plans in 2018. Click through the interactive to see more.
Interactive
To read the article, see “The individual health insurance market in 2023,” April 11, 2023.
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Visual form
County-level choropleth map sequence.
Layout / body structure
The uses full-map US views with Alaska and Hawaii inset below, a large year stamp above the map, and a four-bin legend at the upper left, so the reader compares one year map against the next rather than reading a single static panel.
What is being compared
It compares exchange participation by county over time, showing how many participating carriers are available in each county and how that county-level choice set changed between 2018 and 2023.
Measurement system
The measure is the number of participating carriers in each county, grouped into four legend bins: 1 carrier, 2 carriers, 3 to 4 carriers, and 5 or more carriers.
Visible structure inside the graphic
The main structure is the national county map colored in four shades of blue, with lighter counties marking thinner participation and darker counties marking broader participation; the two visible year frames keep the exact same map layout so the shift in color density is easy to compare.
Main takeaway from the visual
The 2023 map is visibly darker and broader in the middle-to-high participation bins than the 2018 map, so the reader can see that choice expanded across much of the country and that the lightest one-carrier counties became less common.
Key standout values or extremes
The visible year comparison is 2018 versus 2023, and the source page anchors that map shift with one-carrier counties falling to 4 percent from 52 percent five years earlier and average choice rising to five insurers and 88 plans from three insurers and 27 plans.
Controls / sequence, when applicable
The visible controls change the chart view while keeping the same graphic structure.
Companion media, when applicable
There is no separate companion audio or video; the chart is the full visual on this page.