Joel Ario Discusses How State Elections Affect Health Exchange Decisions
"HHS Says Sitting Governor Must Submit Exchange Declaration, Though Candidates Could Shape Outcome"
Inside Health Reform
November 5, 2012 - Manatt's Joel Ario, a managing director with Manatt Health Solutions, spoke to Inside Health Reform about the option that states have to defer health insurance exchange decisions to the governors that will be elected on November 6, 2012.
Inside Health Reform reports that only the sitting governor of a state has the authority to declare the type of health insurance exchange the state intends to operate. Two states with governor's races on November 6 (Washington and Vermont) have already sent letters to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services declaring that their states will set up a state exchange. Other states with governor's races, such as Indiana, are deferring the final decisions on the exchange to the governor-elect.
Ario told the publication that Washington will be interesting to watch because it has been a leader in its exchange development, but the gubernatorial race is close. Recent polls show that former Democratic congressman Jay Inslee currently holds a slight lead over GOP candidate Rob McKenna. Inslee voted for the health reform law as a congressman, while McKenna, Washington's attorney general, joined the lawsuit by 26 states challenging the constitutionality of the ACA.