I agree on the last point: ACA probably actually helps them by making this kind of analysis possible to automate, since it gets the plan data into some kind of

I agree on the last point: ACA probably actually helps them by making this kind of analysis possible to automate, since it gets the plan data into some kind of commensurable, analyzable form, and simplifies the answers to all kinds of eligibility questions. Once you have a standard format for health-insurance offerings, one analogy could be with air travel, where people build sites like Kayak and Hipmunk on top of ITA's systems. That isn't possible to do adequately if every health plan has its own custom set of terms written in English/legalese.