Not every state has decided to create a state health insurance exchange. Many that did choose to make one have been working hard to get it ready to go. Minnesota recently selected the company that will help them to build the technical part of their exchange.
Last year, in April, the Minnesota House of Representatives introduced a bill that would ban Minnesota from creating a health insurance exchange. This was a bill presented by the Republican politicians in the Minnesota House of Representatives. If this bill were passed into law, it would mean that Minnesota would end up with a health insurance exchange that was created for their state by the federal government.
I do not live in Minnesota, and had lost track of exactly what happened with that particular bill. A little bit of searching around on the internet showed me that Governor Mark Dayton made an executive order on October 31, 2011. Governor Dayton is part of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor-Party, (DFL), which is a state affiliate of the Democratic Party.
The executive order was called “Establishing a Vision for Health Care Reform in Minnesota”. In short, the executive order allowed Minnesota to start working on its state health insurance exchange. Governor Dayton accepted $28.4 million from the federal government to plan out Minnesota’s exchange. This most likely came from the federal Establishment Grant. He also extended Minnesota’s Medicaid coverage. It is probable that he received a federal fund that would help make that possible.
Recently, the Minnesota state Commerce Department selected a company called MAXIMUS to help set up the technical side of their health insurance exchange. The company is based in Reston, Virginia, and has several subcontractors. One subcontractor is IBM, another is Connecture, (which is based in Waukesha, Wisconsin), and another is EngagePoint, (which is based in Florida).
Why choose this particular company? Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman had this to say:
“They turned out to be the best in order to fit what we wanted to do in Minnesota. They have the capabilities and have some experience. And they’re also working with several other vendors to help with some of the pieces of it.”
This means that Minnesota is among the states that have decided to create their own state health insurance exchange. The exchanges will help people to find affordable health insurance. All exchanges, whether created by a state, or created by the federal government on behalf of a state that chose not to create one, will be running in 2014.
Image by Minnesota National Guard on Flickr