White House relaxes key rule in new healthcare law to ease health insurance exchanges requirements

[Better Believe It]

New rules aim to ease state-run health insurance exchanges
The exchanges are a key feature of President Obama's healthcare law, but questions — and criticism — have grown as the deadline approaches for setting them up.
By Noam N. Levey, Washington Bureau
March 12, 2012

In the face of mounting resistance from Republican state leaders and other critics, the Obama administration moved Monday to ease development of state-based insurance exchanges, a key feature of the new healthcare law.

.... the administration has been wrestling with how to set standards for the exchanges to protect consumers without saddling states, insurers and businesses with crippling new regulations.

The rules issued Monday give states some flexibility in deciding how to run their exchanges, while also allowing states that are not ready by 2014 to get help opening their exchange a year later.

Thus far, only 12 states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation creating some kind of state-based health insurance exchanges, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Read the full article at:

http://www.latimes.com/health/la-na-healthcare-exchanges-20120313,0,5088888.story

[zipplewrath]

1. It will take time

I'm fairly skeptical that these exchanges are going to work out as the White House suggests. But I think the predictions of their dismal failure are as premature as the glowing predictions of their wild success. It will take time to see just how useful and effective they can be. My personal suspicion is that they will be a different verse of the same tune. None the less, only time will tell.

[TheKentuckian]

2. The need for time was reasoning behind the 2014 start date, supposedly.

In reality, it was a lameass accounting trick to get the price tag down to sellable.

[zipplewrath]

3. There is no doubt

There's not doubt that the accounting was part of the reasoning. But, considering the alterations and regulations that were going to be written, there was nothing wrong with bringing them on line in an orderly manner. As I say, I think it also left alot of room for lobbying that will keep this from being the panacea that is often touted by its supporters.