The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services has granted early approval for six states to operate health insurance exchanges.
The states--Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington--all have Democratic governors and were the first of 14 states to submit their plans to operate an exchange, reported The Hill's Healthwatch.
Because the six states have made sufficient progress building their online marketplaces, HHS granted them conditional approval to begin enrolling members next October, according to Bloomberg.
"Today, we're announcing that six states who applied early have made enough progress setting up their own marketplaces or Exchanges that we are ready to conditionally approve their plans--meaning they are on track to meet all Exchange deadlines," HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a HealthCare Blog post.
She added that HHS is still reviewing other states' applications to build exchanges and expects "the majority of states will play an active role operating their Exchanges."
To learn more:
- read The Hill's Healthwatch article
- see the Bloomberg article
- check out the HHS HealthCare Blog post