States appear to be sticking to health exchange choices

Modern Healthcare reports that states -- whether they elected to run their own insurance marketplaces or use healthcare.gov -- appear to be staying the course in terms of the health law's exchanges. Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Connector is a hot topic on the campaign trail.

Modern Healthcare:  States Stick To Insurance Exchange Models
Few states could claim Obamacare's first enrollment period was smooth -- whatever the final numbers -- but most will approach their insurance exchanges the same way for the 2015 window. None has asked the Obama administration to take over its marketplace or elected to abandon healthcare.gov in favor of running its own.  For the 2014 enrollment period, 26 states and the District of Columbia opted to run their own marketplaces, while 17 states relied completely on healthcare.gov, and the remaining seven resorted to partnerships intended as bridges to independent exchanges. States had until May 1 to declare if they wanted to switch models, and the CMS received none, an agency spokeswoman said (Dickson, 5/19).

The Boston Globe: Grossman Critical Of Mass. Health Law Implementation
Treasurer and gubernatorial candidate Steven Grossman today offered a sharp critique of the way Massachusetts has implemented President Obama's health care law as well as the state's dysfunctional online health insurance marketplace. "Our implementation, the Connector," the Democrat said at a breakfast forum, "it's been a disaster, and I think people recognize that and it's costing us a lot of money." Since the state's online health insurance marketplace was revamped last year to comply with the federal health care overhaul, it has not worked properly and left thousands of consumers frustrated and many without coverage for months (Miller, 5/19).