State regulators to seek health exchange alternatives
By Joe Gardyasz

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners has formed a new working group of state insurance commissioners to aid states seeking alternatives to the formal state health-care exchange path outlined in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The group, known as the Health Care Reform Regulatory Alternatives Working Group, was organized earlier this week  according to an article at LifeHealthPro.com. Its chairman, Pennsylvania Insurance Commissioner Michael Consedine, said the group is “not a forum to throw grenades at ‘Obamacare.'”

There are no members yet, but Iowa Insurance Commissioner Susan Voss does not plan to join the group, said Tom Alger, a spokesman for the Iowa Insurance Division.

“She said that really, she doesn’t have time,” Alger said in an email, adding that Voss is focusing on life insurance issues and international insurance matters. “She’ll continue to work with the governor’s office on his vision for health matters going forward,” Alger wrote.

One of the group’s four charges is to analyze the impact of the Affordable Care Act on existing regulatory authority, both inside and outside a federal exchange, LifeHealthPro reported. States that do not form their own exchanges will have a federally operated exchange. The group is also supposed to assist regulators in resolving open issues with regard to non-state exchange alternatives.

Work on the so-called exchanges — meant to function as online marketplaces for individuals and small employers to purchase health insurance — has been underway in a handful of states and has been delayed or rejected in many others since the health-care law passed in 2010 and was upheld in June 2012 by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Gov. Terry Branstad, who has delayed making any decision on launching a state-run exchange, is not expected to announce whether the state will operate an exchange until after the November election.