State Behind the Eight Ball

With the Supreme Court's ruling that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is constitutional, it has put North Carolina behind the eight ball in setting up a mandated marketplace where uninsured people and small businesses can shop for health insurance. The law mandated that each state establish a health benefits exchange or the federal government would assume that responsibility.  Here again, do we want to manage our own our let the Federal government do it for us?



States that want to retain control of the exchanges are  facing a mid-November deadline to apply to have detailed plans approved by January so they can begin operating a year later. 2014 would be the earliest a state could begin operating.  North Carolina has no plan. Although both chambers approved a provision in a technical corrections bill expressing their intention to establish an exchange, only the House passed legislation actually creating it. The Senate did not act on the house bill and now that the law was ruled constitutional North Carolina is facing a deadline it cannot meet.




So it appears the  U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will take control of North Carolina’s exchange. The state can apply to take control back, but it won’t be able to do so until it does enough work to show that it can take over the program at least a year before it actually does.  So the State of North Carolina is somewhat in limbo and dependent on the Federal government to administer its health benefits exchange.  Not a good position to be in.  Let's hope our state officials get busy and return as much control as possible back to the state.



Don't forget there is an election tomorrow, July 17th.  Go vote.  It is the run-off elections.  Many people have forgotten about the run-offs so turn out will be light.  GO VOTE!!