The Department of Health and Human Services has granted conditional approval for Illinois’ plan for a health insurance exchange. The state will have an exchange that is a federal-state partnership. In this blog, I also have an update about what each state is doing with their exchange.
On February 13, 2013, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, announced that the state of Illinois has been granted conditional approval for their plan to operate a health insurance exchange. The state has decided to create a partnership exchange. This means it will be run, in part, by the federal government, and in part, by the state government of Illinois.
There were two other potential choices for a health insurance exchange. Some states have selected to have a state-based exchange (which would be run entirely through the state). Others chose to have a federal exchange (which would be entirely run by the federal government).
The state of Illinois will be responsible for regulating the insurance market, and can tailor which types of private health insurance plans will be included in the exchange. The state will also be responsible for customer assistance. The federal government will be responsible for building and operating the exchange. People who live in Illinois will be able to use the exchange in October of 2013 to find affordable health insurance. Those plans will become active as of January 1, 2014.
What is your state doing? Here’s an update on where things stand. The information comes from the Kaiser Family Foundation.
State-Based Exchange
California
Colorado
Connecticut
District of Columbia
Hawaii
Idaho
Kentucky
Maryland
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Nevada
New Mexico
New York
Oregon
Rhode Island
Vermont
Washington
Partnership Exchange
Arkansas
Delaware
Illinois
Iowa
Michigan
Mississippi (This is still being decided.)
Utah (this is still being decided)
West Virginia
Federal Exchange
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Florida
Georgia
Indiana
Kansas
Louisiana
Maine
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
New Hampshire
New Jersey
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Image by David Paul Ohmer on Flickr