States Consider Rates, Legislation On Health Insurance Marketplaces
Rates for coverage offered through the online marketplaces make news in Minnesota and the District of Columbia, while bills in California could hold up the exchange's rollout.
MPR News: Cost Of MNsure Health Plans Won’t Be Revealed Until October
If you're wondering how much you might have to pay for a health plan sold on MNsure, Minnesota's health insurance exchange, you're going to have to wait. Several other states, including California and Oregon have already revealed the premium rates health insurers want to charge for plans to be sold on the exchanges in those states. The state exchanges will likely foster the most significant changes in the health insurance system since Medicaid and Medicare were enacted in the 1960s. In Minnesota, carriers have already filed their rate proposals with regulators, but state law requires keeping them confidential until October (Richert, 6/11).
CQ HealthBeat: No Rate Shock In D.C. Exchange, Officials Assert
District of Columbia officials say premiums that insurers will charge this fall on the new insurance exchange won't show a spike in rates and that customers will have a wider choice of plans than they do now (Reichard, 6/10).
California Healthline: Background Check Bill May Affect Exchange Deadline
Covered California board members say the timely rollout of the health insurance exchange relies heavily on two bills in the state Legislature spelling out the details of hiring 20,000 health reform workers. The board expressed concern about controversy surrounding one of the bills that excludes felons. The bills -- SB 509 and AB 1428 -- would require new employees to undergo background checks and fingerprinting and disqualify any applicant with a felony conviction. … Health policy experts and civil rights groups are taking issue with the provision in the bill prohibiting the state from hiring new employees with a felony conviction, arguing that it violates potential employees' equal opportunity employment rights (Hart, 6/10).
