Capsules: A day of stark state differences on health exchanges; Eye experts: States should make vision care an exchange benefit

Now on Kaiser Health News' blog, Colorado Public Radio's Eric Whitney and News Service of Florida's Jim Saunders, working in collaboration with KHN and NPR, offered updates regarding their respective state's action on health exchanges: "Friday is the deadline for states to decide if they want to build and operate their own exchanges or have the federal government do it. The online insurance marketplaces are supposed to start signing people up in October 2013 for policies that begin in January 2014. Here are two dispatches from reporters in the field" (12/11).  

Also on the blog, Alvin Tran writes that authors of a new study are pressing for the inclusion of adult vision benefits in the insurance coverage sold on the exchanges: "Athough the federal health law mandates vision coverage for children, the same requirement does not apply to adults. States themselves can require certain insurance benefits. And researchers from the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina suggest strong reasons for doing so" (Tran, 12/11). Check out what else is on the blog.