Most states have been lollygagging on creating the health insurance exchanges, ie, government sponsored insurance plans that include government mandates on coverage offered through governmentally approved insurance companies that everyone and every company must move to if they make any changes to their existing plans, and plan on continued lollygagging
(WRAL) North Carolina lawmakers said Thursday that they have no plans to meet a deadline to create a new one-stop shop to help individuals and small businesses find affordable health insurance despite a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
State Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger said senators do not intend to take up legislation to create a health benefit exchange before they adjourn next week. The 2010 federal health care overhaul requires all states to have an exchange. Legislation passed the state House last year.
State plans for the markets are due to the federal government by this fall. The federal government will create exchanges for states that don’t have them by 2014. Only 14 states and Washington, D.C., have adopted a plan for carrying out the law creating exchanges that steer middle-class households to private plans.
In fact, while some 14 states and DC have plans to create exchanges, almost none have actually implemented those plans.
(Wisconsin Radio Network) Despite the Supreme Court upholding the law, Governor Walker says Wisconsin will not take any action to implement health care reforms until after the election. He says the legal challenge was only the first step, and Republicans reclaiming the White House and Congress could still stop if from taking effect. Walker says “only after each of those two has been exhausted will we consider what the state will do.â€
That sentiment is echoed by many, many states. Missouri residents voted once to say Heck No!!!! to Obamacare in 2010, and will vote again come November on the ballot, so the state is doing nothing to implement any Obamacare measures.
Then you get stuff like this
(LA Times) California’s new insurance exchange is seeking about $190 million in additional federal money as it prepares to help millions of consumers shop for health insurance.
That’s on top of the hundreds of millions Brokeifornia is already appropriating to this crazy law.
(Civsource) Two of the biggest states in the union – California and Florida are moving forward with plans to build health care exchanges. California has chosen Accenture to build out its health exchange – CalHEERS, the biggest system and biggest contract award of its type in the country. Florida is choosing Xerox for its efforts.
Actually, Florida is unsure how they will proceed. Here’s where it gets really good
The (California) contract includes about $183 million for the initial development and implementation of the system. Another $176 million will be paid out over the remainder of the three year contract for later phases of the build out. The state estimates that approximately 4.4 million residents will have been helped through the project by 2016.
In Florida, Florida Health Choices, a corporation established by the state to improve access to health care, has selected Xerox (NYSE: XRX) to administer its Insurance Marketplace. The nine-year contract is valued at $68 million.
Sure seems like it’s costing quite a bit of money at both the state and federal levels just to set up the exchanges, eh? I thought this was supposed to save money. Should be interesting to see how much it actually costs to run them. And all on top of massive tax increases on the middle class.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.
Has no one thought to ask why XEROX is being tasked to run an insurance bulletin-board?
And, why does it cost hundreds of millions to set up a bulletin board where people can locate health insuring companies?
You could ask, but their answer would probably enraged you further.