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Starting in October, consumers shopping on the new exchange will be able to choose from bronze, silver, gold, platinum and catastrophic plans that offer a range of premiums, deductibles and co-pays depending on variables such as how many doctors you want included in your network.That's why Smithberger says it's important that consumers look at more than the bottom line when choosing plans. It may be the lowest priced plan, but it may have a very high deductible or only offer a limited number of doctors.

The large number of plans in some places masks the fact that there aren’t that many insurers actually competing. In Miami-Dade County in Florida there are nine insurers selling 137 plans; Florida Blue alone offers 52 of them. Few markets are as competitive as is Miami. Nationwide, 18 percent of counties have only one insurer offering plans and 33 percent of counties have only two insurers competing, the KHN analysis found.

including deductibles, co-payments and which doctors and hospitals are in their networks.

“Physicians, they just want to know who's walking through their door and what kind of coverage they’re going to have,” said Lee Spangler, vice president of medical economics at the Texas Medical Association. “They’d like that uncertainty to be settled.