With the presidential election behind us, payers should look to states to determine the details of many health reform provisions, particularly health insurance exchanges.
Political leanings of each state likely will influence how officials legislate health reform. There are now 30 Republican-controlled governorships and 24 state legislatures, while Democrats control 19 governorships and 18 legislatures. The remaining states either are split or tied, reported Kaiser Health News.
Although, even Republican leaders may eventually fall in line with health insurance exchanges. Except for the GOP-led states of Texas, Florida and Louisiana, which have completely rejected a state-run exchange, every other state probably "is in some state of preparedness," Joel Ario, former director of exchange planning for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, told Politico Pro.
So far, only 13 states and the District of Columbia said they will run their own health insurance exchange, but several states, including Arizona, Idaho, New Jersey, Virginia and Tennessee, said they would decide after the election, The New York Times reported.
States must tell HHS by Friday whether they plan to run part of their own exchange, entirely run the exchange or defer to the federal fallback option. Those decisions will help payers decide in which exchanges they will participate.
To learn more:
- read the Kaiser Health News article
- see the Politico Pro article
- check out the New York Times article