Some states struggling with efforts to establish insurance exchanges

Health Policy Solutions (Colorado news service): Stephens Predicts Health Exchange Will Pass
House Majority Leader Amy Stephens, who may hold the future of Colorado's health exchange in her hands, predicted Tuesday that Colorado lawmakers ultimately will support the online health insurance marketplace and said her coalition is not fractured. "I'm thinking we can (get it through the legislature). I'm working really hard on adding clarity and answering some of the concerns of the bill. ... The Governor's Office knows that and they're very much with me," said Stephens, R-Monument, who is sponsoring the bill in the House (Kerwin McCrimmon, 4/19). 

Georgia Health News: Georgia Faces 2012 Deadlines For Exchanges
The Georgia Legislature apparently has one more shot to pass a bill setting up a health insurance exchange. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday that the federal government will have a deadline sometime in 2012 for states to make sufficient progress on insurance exchanges as required by health reform. If Georgia or other states fail to make progress by that yet-to-be-determined deadline, the federal government would step in to run an exchange (Miller, 4/19).

The Texas Tribune: Ogden Revives Key Piece of Federal Health Reform
Implementing a key piece of federal health care reform in Texas — something Gov. Rick Perry has expressed his firm opposition to — may be back on the table. A bill authored by the influential chair of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, would create a state health insurance exchange, a marketplace for the public to seek out insurance options (Ramshaw, 4/19).