HMO stands for Health Maintenance Organization, and the coverage restricts patients to a particular, local group of physicians called a network. PPO is short for Preferred Provider Organization and allows patients to choose any physician they wish, either inside or outside of their network. Most people request PPO if available. The least expensive plans on “ACA / The Market Place” are HMOs and the most expensive are PPO’s if available at all.
The plans we recommend on this site for healthy people are all PPOs.