New Jersey has taken a major step toward establishing a health insurance exchange this week as the Health and Senior Services committee voted to approve a new bill that would make an exchange possible. The bill, A2171, aims to define what a health insurance exchange would be for the state. Each state is allowed to determine how it implements an exchange program and how it will be run. The legislation faced staunch opposition in its early days, but as the bill changed through a series of auxiliary provisions it gained…
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Minnesota lawmakers clash over recommendations from health insurance exchange advisory task force
Legislators are clashing in Minnesota over recommendations regarding a health insurance exchange program. The recommendations come from a task force that had been commissioned by Governor Mark Dayton. The task force’s goal was to determine the necessity of a health insurance exchange program for the state. According to the group’s recommendations, the program would bring significant benefits to residents and could help improve the economy of the state, which is why the task force is now supporting plans to build and exchange. The task force was comprised of some of…
Read MoreFederal leeway on insurance benefits may push back plans for a health insurance exchange in Oregon
Earlier this month, the Obama administration announced that it would allow states to take control of the benefits they offer to consumers through their health insurance exchange program. While hailed as a major boon for states, the added leeway may push back efforts to form an exchange, such is the case in Oregon, where legislators have delayed current plans to further investigate how an exchange will affect the state’s insurance industry and its consumers. Director of the Oregon insurance exchange Howard “Rocky” King claims that the exchange could extend coverage to…
Read MoreAmerican Medical Association suggests physicians and consumers play a governing role in state-run health insurance exchanges
As states continue to show indecision regarding the establishment of health insurance exchanges, the American Medical Association has decided to enter the fray. The association, comprised of medical professionals throughout the U.S., has issued a number of recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services. The AMA has suggested a number of rules that would serve as protection for patients and physicians participating in the exchanges. The AMA has also stated that physicians and patients should have a governing role in a state’s health insurance exchange program. Though the…
Read MoreInstitute of Medicine introduces new recommendations concerning insurance exchanges
Health insurance exchanges are, perhaps, the most accepted provision of last year’s Affordable Care Act. While some states have railed against the notion of the federally mandated program, most have been eager to explore their options. States have been slow to pass legislations making the exchanges possible, but have wasted no time in making preparations for the system. According to a new report from the Institute of Medicine, however, the future of insurance exchanges may be in jeopardy if federal legislators cannot solve the expensive flaws in the system. Exchanges…
Read MoreKansas rejects health insurance exchanges, returns money to government
Kansas, on Tuesday, returned a large grant provided by the federal government to help the state establish a health insurance exchange program. The state has long opposed the health care reform instigated by the Obama administration and has taken steps to block the reform’s measures from affecting the insurance industry within Kansas. Several other states have railed against the reform, but Kansas is only the second to return money to the federal government. They money would have funded the majority of the insurance exchange, but now the state will have…
Read MoreGovernment hopes to see action on state insurance exchanges soon despite ambiguous guidelines
The federal government is hoping that states make moves on insurance exchanges soon. Several guidelines have been released by the government to lay the framework for how states should go about building and operating the exchanges, but few have been quick to take up action. Federal law requires that states must have a working exchange program established by 2014 or the control of this program will default to the federal government. The director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,…
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