Because it can be, and doing so provides a better experience. If you have the chance to design a system from scratch, you're going to want the best design you c

Because it can be, and doing so provides a better experience. If you have the chance to design a system from scratch, you're going to want the best design you can afford, right? So why not create a marketplace where buying health coverage is as simple and straightforward as buying speakers on Amazon -- a list of products with prices and a buy button. The asynchronous alternative is a menu of plans you may or may not qualify for, at prices that may change after you apply, based on inputs many people will get wrong (unintentionally and otherwise), with a true cost that won't be known until someone does your taxes up to a year later and computes what subsidies you qualified for. Even if there's only a day between signing up and verifying your information, that turns an hour of "getting it done and over with" into a multi-day ordeal. Considering this is a mandated purchase for a lot of people, they want to devote multiple days to it about as much as they want to stand in a long line at their local DMV.