healthinsurance.org news digest

State firms up exchange plans; Oregonians should be able to enroll in exchange plans by October 2013

Staff Writers healthinsurance.org Oregon is moving forward with a health insurance exchange, approved by its legislature, and is also one of a handful of states to receive a special federal grant to develop innovative ways to build the technical infrastructure for an exchange, as a model for other states. A seven-person board has been named to run the [...]

Idaho governor at odds with voters over health insurance exchange

Healthcare Finance News – An AARP survey shows that Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter is now at odds with most Idaho voters ages 30-64, who want the state – not the federal government – to develop and administer a health insurance exchange with a strong state consumer voice.

Battle over how health insurance is sold in Minnesota begins

StarTribune – Two DFL legislators on Monday fired the first salvo in the partisan war to shape how upwards of 1 million Minnesotans buy health insurance by 2014.

Committee leaves exchange decision to 2013 session

Staff Writers healthinsurance.org Updated on December 8, 2011. The Wyoming Health Insurance Exchange Steering Committee is studying the feasibility of creating an insurance exchange. The panel’s work is being supplemented with research by the state Insurance Department. The committee moved in late November to seek additional time to study the issue, and to leave the decision of [...]

Legislation approved for study of exchange in Virginia

Staff Writers healthinsurance.org Updated on December 8, 2011. Virginia’s governor and legislature took the first steps toward creating a health insurance exchange by approving legislation to study the issue and bring back specific recommendations to the legislature. They should cover the structure of the exchange, the makeup of the governing board, resources required and other topics. A Health [...]

No legislative movement, but state accepts grant money, continues to analyze exchange options

Staff Writers healthinsurance.org Updated on December 8, 2011. The head of Tennessee’s insurance exchange planning organization says the state will continue to work on building an exchange regardless of the legal challenges pending at the federal level. State legislators in Tennessee have not yet considered an exchange bill, but state administrators are using $1 million in federal [...]

Gov. Haley refuses additional grant funds for exchange, but study of issues continues under executive order

Staff Writers healthinsurance.org Updated on December 8, 2011. South Carolina is studying whether to build a health insurance exchange based on an executive order from Gov. Nikki Haley; legislators were not able to approve a bill during the last session. A top state health official recommended in mid-November that South Carolina not pursue its own [...]

Governor opposes health reform, but Pennsylvania groups work to decide control of state exchange

Staff Writers healthinsurance.org Updated on December 7, 2011. Pennsylvania will establish a state-based insurance exchange, insurance department officials said in mid-November, despite the state’s involvement in a lawsuit challenging the federal health reform law. Lawmakers considered but did not approve exchange legislation during their last session. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett opposes federal health reform and [...]

State returns federal grant, but work groups, study group continue to assess Oklahoma exchange issues

Staff Writers healthinsurance.org Updated on December 7, 2011. Oklahoma’s insurance exchange planning was handed to a joint legislative committee after lawmakers were unable to come up with a bill they could agree on. The two Republican legislators leading the study group said they would be starting from scratch to learn what Oklahomans want to see from an insurance exchange. [...]

State’s leadership would prefer to see ACA repealed

Staff Writers healthinsurance.org Updated on December 7, 2011. Serious reservations about the concept of a health insurance exchange from the governor, lieutenant governor and some citizens are putting the Ohio exchange in jeopardy. Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, who also directs the state’s insurance department, complained that an exchange will be expensive and that Ohio’s top leadership would [...]

Governor Snyder urges passage of state insurance exchange legislation by Thanksgiving

Staff Writers healthinsurance.org Updated on December 6, 2011. Michigan is working toward the creation of a Michigan Health Marketplace. Though the legislature didn’t approve a law authorizing the exchange, Gov. Rick Snyder supports it and is encouraging legislators to get a bill in place by November 2011 so Michigan can apply for more federal grant funding. The [...]

Advisory committee, governor work through Maine exchange issues

Staff Writers healthinsurance.org This page last updated on December 6, 2011. Maine has made enough progress with its insurance exchange development that an exchange advisory committee and the governor are working through nitty-gritty issues such as whether the individual and small group markets should be separate, and what kind of governing authority the executive director [...]

Health reform critic Brownback returns $31.5 million, but steering committee continues to work on exchange

Staff Writers healthinsurance.org Updated on December 6, 2011. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is one of the most vociferous critics of health reform in the nation, and he has decided to give back $31.5 million in federal money that would have helped the state build its insurance exchange. The exchange has been a matter of debate [...]

Legislature fails to pass bill, but insurance department works to create exchange

Staff Writers healthinsurance.org Updated on December 6, 2011. Nebraska’s Department of Insurance is working on creating an insurance exchange after the legislature failed to approve a bill to do so. The Insurance Department is holding public hearings and is conducting analyses on the economic, financial and information technology issues related to a state-run exchange. An analyst for [...]

State will accept $7 million for development of exchange

Staff Writers healthinsurance.org Updated on December 5, 2011. Iowa is inching its way toward an insurance exchange through the establishment of an insurance information exchange, which was approved in 2010. It provides consumers with comparisons of benefits, premiums and out-of-pocket costs of current health plans, but does not establish or sell any new plans as [...]

Governor opposes ACA, state mulls funding for exchange

Staff Writers healthinsurance.org Updated December 5, 2011. Idaho is moving ahead with planning a health insurance exchange, despite Republican Gov. Butch Otter’s discomfort with the health reform law as a whole. Otter in September 2011 allowed an application for federal grant money to get the exchange going. But he told the Spokane Spokesman-Review that it [...]

State to ‘dismantle’ planning process for exchange

Staff Writers healthinsurance.org Arkansas will dismantle its planning process for a state-run health insurance exchange, the state’s insurance commissioner said in early December. He blamed opposition from Republicans in the state legislature. Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, earlier chose not to seek a mutli-million-dollar federal grant to implement the exchange, citing opposition from Republican [...]

Governor opposes ACA, but supports access to coverage

Staff Writers healthinsurance.org Despite the opposition of its Republican governor to the individual mandate to purchase health insurance, Alabama has an active process under way to create a health benefits exchange. Gov. Robert Bentley, a physician, opposes many of the provisions of the health reform law but believe the idea of giving individuals and small [...]

Plans for state-run health exchange in Ark. ended

CBS News – Arkansas Insurance Commissioner Jay Bradford says he’ll stop working toward state control of an Arkansas state health insurance exchange. Exchange plans had been opposed by Republicans in the Arkansas legislature.

Senator: No health insurance exchange bill likely in regular session

JournalStar.com – The state legislature’s Banking, Commerce and Insurance Committee chair says it’s not likely that a state health insurance exchange bill will get out of committee and be debated in the 2012 regular session. That could result in a special session after April 2012 if the state decides to proceed with its own exchange.

Democrats Blast LePage Over Health Care Funds

MPBN – Governor Paul LePage is catching flack from Maine Democrats for accepting federal funds to plan a state health insurance exchange while at the same time pursuing a lawsuit in attempt to block the federal health reform law.

Fight likely after Idaho gets $20M from feds

Bloomberg Businessweek – The state has received a $20.4 million planning grant to set up a federally required health insurance exchange, but the Legislature has yet to decide whether to keep the funds.

Governor sends health insurance exchange report to General Assembly

Richmond Times-Dispatch – It’s clear that Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell opposes last year’s federal health reform law. What remains unclear is whether he supports creation of a state-run health insurance exchange.

Health Insurance Exchange Study Commission Presents Report to Governor Bentley

State of Alabama – Alabama’s Health Insurance Exchange Study Commission has submitted a report and recommendations for the state exchange, including a name for the exchange, and a recommendation that the exchange use a “free-market facilitator model.”

Branstad accepts $7 million grant to prepare for health reforms he opposes

DesMoinesRegister.com – Gov. Terry Branstad is opposed to a federal overhaul of health care, but he has agreed to take $7 million in federal grants to prepare for the possibility of an Iowa state health insurance exchange.

State setting up health insurance exchange

The Morning Call – Gov. Tom Corbett’s administration says it’s moving ahead with plans to establish a state-run health insurance exchange. At least 2 million residents are expected to use it.

State cautiously considers health insurance exchange

Wyoming Tribune Eagle – The state is moving toward establishment of a state-run health insurance exchange and is expected to seek federal funding in December to continue its study of the feasibility of establishing a state-run exchange.

Committee still undecided on health care exchange

Tulsa World – An informal poll of a state committee examining state health insurance exchange options has found that a majority favor a state exchange of some sort.

Passage of health insurance exchange bill this year looks unlikely

Crain’s Detroit Business – On Nov. 10, the Michigan Senate passed legislation that would create a statewide health insurance exchange, but that may be as far as the legislation moves in 2011.

Tennessee pushes ahead with mandated health-insurance exchange

The Commercial Appeal – Despite court challenges to the federal health reform law, the state of Tennessee will continue to prepare for a state health insurance exchange.