Most states not setting up health exchanges under Obamacare, leaving it to the feds.

[No Elephants]

U.S. faces task of running dozens of health exchanges
By David Morgan

WASHINGTON | Thu Dec 13, 2012 4:06pm EST

(Reuters) - Fourteen U.S. states and the District of Columbia so far have told the federal government they plan to operate healthcare exchanges under President Barack Obama's reform law, leaving Washington with the daunting task of creating online marketplaces for at least two-thirds of the country.

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"I am confident that states and the federal government will be ready in ten months, when consumers in all states can begin to apply," Gary Cohen, director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, told a health oversight panel in the U.S. House of Representatives.


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Some experts say the number of states planning to operate their own exchanges could reach 18 by the time the deadline arrives Friday. Still, the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, which tracks healthcare issues, says only two states - Utah and Florida - remain undecided.

That would leave at least 30 states in which the administration would be required to run exchanges, a challenge that is raising questions about how successfully U.S. officials can implement a key provision of the healthcare reform law, known to opponents and advocates alike as "Obamacare".

"I don't envy them for the job that they have," said Dennis Smith, a former federal healthcare official who now heads health services in Wisconsin, a state that has decided not to pursue its own exchange.

"At the end of the day, you're trying to connect a buyer to a seller. And the fundamental things required to do that are not yet in place," he said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/13/us-usa-healthcare-exchanges-idUSBRE8BC0XB20121213


I see coming another federal bureaucracy that will serve private companies more than consumers. I would have preferred a single payer bureacracy, but who can match the financial clout of those who profit from human illness?

[Enthusiast]

1. You summed it up nicely.

It will eventually dawn on everyone that single payer is the only possible way to contain costs while providing decent care. In the meantime millions will suffer and die for the obscene profits of a few insurance and pharmaceutical industry parasites.

[No Elephants]

2. I would like to believe that you are correct about single payer, but I am not hopeful.

I would include many medical providers in the "obscene profits" category.