Yesterday, the Obama Administration issued the long-awaited and overdue regulations related to the creation of ObamaCare insurance exchanges (a copy of the regulations can be found here). The regulations were met with criticism from Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell on behalf of the Republican Governor's Association which echoed concerns AHEC has been raising about the idea of exchanges for more than a year.
The RGA press release on the subject had this to say:
“Once again, the Obama administration has overpromised, oversold and under-delivered, this time with regards to granting states the flexibility needed to establish and maintain health insurance exchanges. The regulations issued today by the Department of Health and Human Services extend the federal government’s reach into the states and will cost the states millions of dollars annually to operate. This Administration’s inability to provide critical guidance to their broken healthcare reform mandate gives more and more credence to the necessity of the Supreme Court ruling this law unconstitutional.”
The pre see release also pointed out the following shortcomings of the regulations:
- No clarity on what benefit mandates will be imposed on states
- No clarity on cost-sharing
- No clarity on risk adjustment and reinsurance
- No clarity on the federal health insurance exchange that would be forced upon states if they refuse to implement the law
- No clarity regarding who will pay for a federal health insurance exchange
- No clarity on “partnership exchanges”
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