Thursday, June 28, 2012

State-run health exchanges in jeopardy as Obamacare decision looms

The future of many state-run health insurance exchanges hangs in the balance ahead of Thursday’s expected Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.
Several states have already passed state laws creating their own exchange programs, which will not be affected by the ruling, but other states have signed on with the federal system.
Brett Graham, who directs the health exchange practice at Leavitt Partners, told The Daily Caller that both the Supreme Court ruling and the November election might influence states’ decisions on how to proceed with their exchanges.
“There’d be a few states that would still have the funding [if Obamacare were entirely struck down],” Graham said. “They would just keep pushing forward. Those would be … the states which received some of their early innovator grants, the large dollar grants that were set forth to be able to do create programs that theoretically were going to be used by other states to follow.”
Washington, California and Maryland are among the few states that Graham said would likely continue on with exchange programs even if the Supreme Court rules Obamacare unconstitutional.

No comments: