Colorado Lawmakers Take Up Health Care Exchanges
DENVER (AP) - Colorado lawmakers have agreed on a plan that creates a health insurance marketplace they hope will help the state avoid mandates from a federal health care law.
The bill creates an exchange board and an oversight committee. The board would administer the exchange, with the power to set up financial plans, apply for grants and determine the size of the small employer market. The exchange would allow small groups to pool resources to buy health insurance. It was approved Tuesday by the House Health & Environment Committee with overwhelming support from the business community and now goes to the full House for debate.
Trying to quell fears that it's a step toward federal health care mandates, the exchange would not purchase insurance or set rates, be an agency of the state and there would be no mandate to buy health insurance. Carriers would not be required to provide insurance.
Bill Lindsay, who chaired a health care study group that recommended Colorado set up its own exchanges, said it's better for Colorado to come up with its own plan than wait for the federal government to come up with a plan.
"It's a Colorado solution to the questions and issues, and it's unique to Colorado," he said.
Supporters argue that states that don't set up exchanges will be assigned one by the federal government in future years and say Colorado should act now to craft its own exchange.
Kim Green, a founding member of a tea party action group, said it's simply a back door to federal health care because it will be funded with federal money, and with federal money comes federal restrictions.
"They have a blank check to do what they want with it," she said before the House Health & Environment Committee took up debate on the bill on Tuesday.
The bill sets up a Colorado health insurance exchange, which could allow individuals and small businesses to pool together for lower health insurance rates. The federal health care law requires states to set up health insurance exchanges by 2013, or the federal government will set up exchanges for them.
GOP Rep. Amy Stephens, co-sponsor of the legislation, said Colorado cannot wait for a federal court decision and argued the state should be able to opt out of the federal programs. Colorado is among states suing the federal government over parts of the health care law, and the measure would not affect that lawsuit.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
- By Steven K. Paulson, AP Writer
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
