Some States Taking Federal Funds Are Still Hesitant About Building Health Exchanges
Several articles look at the efforts around the country to establish these insurance marketplaces.
CQ HealthBeat: On Exchanges: The Money Is There But States Still Drag Their Feet
Health and Human Services officials dispatched $181 million in grants to six states this week to help establish health insurance exchanges. But some state officials who are about to receive checks aren't rushing to create the new marketplaces. News reports from Illinois, South Dakota and Tennessee indicate that despite the additional money, governors and state legislators remain loath to move forward on setting up the marketplaces for individual and small group insurance policies that are supposed to launch in 2014 (Norman, 5/18).
Minnesota Public Radio: Federal Officials To Review Minn.'s Progress On Health Exchange
Minnesota Commerce Department officials say federal officials will review the state's progress on developing a key part of the federal health care overhaul next week. ... The federal officials will assess Minnesota's progress in developing a central pillar of the federal health care overhaul, the state health insurance exchange (Stawicki, 5/18).
Modern Healthcare: Somewhere In The Middle
The outlook for the establishment of state-run health insurance exchanges may be neither as rosy as their supporters claim nor as dark as their critics expect. Even as several states recently rejected the insurance marketplaces required by the 2010 U.S. healthcare overhaul, federal regulators laid out a path that will make it easier for states to change their minds and give more time for them to do so. The combined effect of the disparate federal and state actions indicates that state-run exchanges are less likely in the original time frame of 2014 and more likely over a longer period (Daly, 5/19).