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Columbus
Dispatch...
Who’s
best
to run exchange?
Ohio opts
to let feds set up health-insurance marketplace, citing cost; others
prefer
state
Gov. John
Kasich’s decision to have the federal government set up an online
marketplace where
individuals and small businesses can shop for health coverage has
failed to
resolve the debate about whether Ohioans would be better served by a
state-run
exchange.
Many
health-care providers, patient advocates and state legislators favor a
state-run
exchange, saying it could be crafted to better serve Ohioans and ensure
its
success.
But others
say it’s too soon to know as the industry awaits further guidance from
federal
regulators on what the exchanges required by the Affordable Care Act
will look
like and how they will be run.
“It is the
local community that understands best the needs and dynamics of its
health-care
environment,” Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, chief medical officer of
OhioHealth, said
during a recent panel discussion before the Columbus Metropolitan Club.
“The
employers in our state, those in the health-care industry, whether they
are
payers or providers, and I think our patients, the people of Ohio, need
an
active voice in crafting what an exchange looks like,” Vanderhoff said.
His view is
shared by many who doubt that a generic federal exchange would be
better than
one set up by the state.
“There is
almost nothing the federal government does efficiently,” said Richard
P.
McHugh, a Washington, D.C., lawyer with the firm of Porter Wright. “If
they are
going to get their hands on this, not knowing anything about it, it’s
probably
not going to be an outcome we’ll all be proud of.”
McHugh also
said that insurance companies would rather do business with state
regulators
“than with this distant federal government who knows very little about
the
day-in, day-out issues” in Ohio.
Kasich
agreed that local control is preferable, but he said the
administration’s
decision to allow the federal government to set up Ohio’s exchange came
down to
money.
Lt. Gov.
Mary Taylor, who runs Ohio’s Department of Insurance, which would
oversee the
exchange, said a state-based exchange would cost the state about $43
million,
while a federal one would cost it $1.6 million...
Read the
rest of the article at the Columbus Dispatch
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