States and exchanges: A progress report

Some states are moving ahead with health insurance exchanges while others are moving more slowly than expected.

Kaiser Health News: Some States Moving Ahead With Health Insurance Exchanges (Video)
In today's Health on the Hill segment, Christine Vestal of Stateline joins KHN's Mary Agnes Carey and Jackie Judd to assess the progress - or lack thereof - states are making setting up insurance exchanges. They're required by the health law and they must be set up by 2014 to provide a online marketplace for people to buy insurance (5/31).

The Connecticut Mirror: Senate Passes Health Insurance Exchange Bill
The Senate on Tuesday passed legislation to create a health insurance exchange, laying the groundwork for a new insurance market that will play a key role in expanding coverage under the federal health reform law. The bill, which passed the Senate 23 to 13 and will now go to the House, establishes a quasi-public agency that would be charged with developing and running the exchange, a marketplace for individuals and small businesses to buy health insurance. The exchange does not have to be up and running until 2014 (Levin Becker, 5/31).

Politico: NY Slow to Set Up Health Exchange
New York has all the makings of an ahead-of-the-curve state when it comes to implementing health reform. … There's just one small problem: New York hasn't even passed a health exchange bill yet (Nocera and Kliff, 6/1).

Politico Pro: Alabama Eyes Executive Order For Exchange
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, a Republican, is seriously eyeing an executive order to allow for health reform implementation to move forward in his state, Politico has learned. Bentley is "looking at" an executive order to set up a health exchange under the Affordable Care Act, his Medicaid director Bob Mullins said in an interview, a move he's likely to make by the end of the year (Kliff, 6/1).