California Moves Forward on Health Insurance Exchanges

By Deborah Hirsch
TMCnet Contributor

California – home to seven million uninsured – has promised an official insurance exchange by January 2014, “when a controversial requirement that most Americans have medical coverage or pay a penalty takes effect,” Abby Goodnough reported.

So far, only 13 states and the District of Columbia have told the Obama Administration they intend to set up the health insurance exchanges (HIX) that are meant to provide a marketplace for people to buy health plans.

According to Goodnough, none are being watched as closely as California, whose numbers of uninsured, along with its size, diversity and geographic spread, make it stand out. Many feel a successful rollout here could convince other states with high numbers of uninsured residents that the law can be made to work for them.

“We are the example,” Goodnough quoted Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, an advocacy group. “If it can be done here, it can be done anywhere.”

Already 50 employees have been hired by the California Health Benefit Exchange, with more to come, and the Web portal through which some of those millions of residents are expected to buy insurance by 2019 is being set up.

Goodnough noted that this fall, the board will seek bids from insurers to sell plans through the exchange, and it intends to have the portal up and running by next summer, several months before enrollment starts in October 2013.

Fifteen states are studying their options, while six states have decided not to create a state exchange. Another fifteen states have already established exchanges, while two states and parts of Wisconsin and Michigan plan for a partnership exchange (which provides oversight to HIXs).

The remaining states have no significant plans underway.  

Those states which choose not to set up HIXs by the deadline will have the government step in and do it for them, according to the Affordable Care Act. But as CNBC reported Sunday, some are “working behind the scenes to set up insurance exchanges that provide a market for individuals and small businesses to shop for affordable health coverage.”

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