Decision Science News

Even if HealthCare.gov worked as well as Amazon, buying insurance isn't easy. And for many young, first-time insurance buyers, trying to pick the most cost-effective plan can involve a steep learning curve.

With just over one month until the Affordable Care Act’s health-care exchanges roll out, new research from Columbia University shows the complexity of choosing coverage for consumers, as some experts claim the law’s subsidies do not incentivize consumers to pick their health-care wisely. What’s more, consumers picking the wrong plan will cost taxpayers—to the tune of about $9 billion per year.

By Bill Toland, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette There's a learning curve with all online transactions -- banking on the Web, buying songs from iTunes. So how long will it take America to warm up to shopping for health insurance online?And, more importantly, how long will it take us to shop wisely?That depends largely on the architecture of the websites through which America will do its shopping, according to a new paper written by a University of Pennsylvania Law School health insurance expert and several other colleagues.

(Reuters) - Nobody wants their health benefits cut, but a funny thing happens when U.S. consumers shop for plans on their own: They buy less coverage than they had before. That "buying low" behavior observed in data collected by consulting companies like Aon Hewitt and Liazon Corp may soon happen much more often. With the start of Obamacare and corporate open enrollment seasons, millions of Americans are likely to buy their own healthcare coverage on public and private exchanges.

When frigid temperatures set much of the country shivering last week, pundits took the opportunity to scoff at the concept of climate change."This very expensive GLOBAL WARMING bull**** has got to stop," Donald Trump tweeted. "Our planet is freezing, record low temps, and our GW scientists are stuck in ice."The final comment referred to an Antarctic research vessel that got stuck in ice driven by high winds in late December.  

FORTUNE -- We now know that 7.1 million people signed up for health care insurance during the Affordable Care Act (ACA)'s initial enrollment period, which ended on March 31. But, what is less well known is the potential financial disaster facing these millions of consumers who have chosen policies during the last six months.

Professor Eric Johnson's research on default design in organ donation was featured in The Philadelphia Inquirer in an article by Michael Smerconish.

Professor Eric Johnson received the Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award at the 2012 Society for Consumer Psychology Winter Conference.

Professor Elke Weber, co-director of the Center for Decision Sciences, presented at Mind & Life XXIII: Ecology, Ethics and Interdependence in Dharamsala, India about "Ethics and Action: The Psychology of Action and Behavior Change."

Professor Elke Weber speaks about her research. The title of her talk is "Mindful Judgment and Decision Making: The Case Against Mindless Economics."