Some state officials continue to dawdle on implementing the health care exchanges required by the Affordable Care Act, whether out of spite, stupidity or simply naked political ambition. And then there is my state. New York:
On October 1, 2012, NYS formally submitted its selection of an Essential Health Benefits benchmark plan to Health and Human Services. New York has selected the benefits of the State's largest small group plan, Oxford EPO, as the benchmark plan. In addition to the selection of a benchmark plan, the state has indicated the coverage areas in which benefits will be supplemented in order to meet ACA requirements. View the letter to HHS. For more detail on the benefits covered by the Oxford EPO plan, see Exhibit 3 of the final Milliman report.
On September 25, 2012, NYS submitted a series of documents to HHS in advance of the state's in-person design review scheduled for October 9th and 10th in Bethesda, MD. The sections covered during the design review correspond with requirements of the State's Exchange Blueprint Application due November 16, 2012. A copy of the Blueprint application can be found here. NYS submitted a Declaration Letter in July.
Have any questions? They have an FAQ page you can access here.
Here is a copy of New York's Exchange Blueprint Application due to be delivered to HHS on November 16, 2012.
And here is the letter Donna Frescatore, Executive Director of the New York State Health Benefit Exchange sent to HHS regarding the choices it made with respect to its submission of its proposed Insurance Exchange, dated October 1, 2012.
Needless to say, the Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, is a Democrat. Still, he got this done even though the Democrats did not control both houses of the State Legislature during 2012. Amazing what government can do when the party that holds power believes in governing and governing well, for the benefit of all its citizens.
Now I realize New York's insurance exchange plan may not be without its flaws, but New York's state's government did what the law required in a timely fashion, and I have no doubt that by 2014 New York will have fixed as many of those flaws as possible. And the process in which they went about preparing their plan for an insurance exchange has been been transparent. Anyone can go to their website and access all the relevant documents regarding that process.
Compare and contrast that to states where Republican politicians are sitting on their hands or stomping their feet rather than work within the confines of the law to produce insurance exchanges in their states.
For you Democrats in states run by Republicans I'm sure you feel a little envious. I know I would. However, there's a way to turn that envy into a positive force. Next statewide election do whatever you can to turn out the vote for Democrats running for your state legislatures and for Governor. Because as Florida, Wisconsin and Michigan have proven, Republicans once they get into office don't want to govern, they just want to do their cronies and benefactors favors while doing all they can to maintain power by attacking Unions and suppressing votes by Democratic voters. I wish you luck, and I'm willing to phone bank for you in 2014. After all, I can tell people in your states how well New York's government works because of Democrats. One election is over, but it is never too early to begin preparing for the next one.
Good luck.