States look for creative ways to publicize the online marketplaces where people can shop for and purchase coverage beginning next fall. Meanwhile, Minnesota legislators introduce a measure to set up such a market, and Florida Gov. Rick Scott releases new, much smaller estimates of the cost of expanding that state’s Medicaid program.
Politico: States Struggle With How To Sell Their Exchanges
From Pandora radio to those paper coffee cup sleeves to the neighborhood laundromat, states are searching for creative ways to advertise their new health insurance exchanges to people who may not know much about how to get covered next year under the health care law — and who may not like what they’ve heard (Cunningham, 1/10).
MPR News: With Bill In Hand, Legislators Squeezed For Time To Establish Health Insurance Exchange
As the new legislative session gets underway this week, DFL and Republican lawmakers wasted no time in unveiling a bill to carry out a key part of the federal health care overhaul in Minnesota: establishing a state health insurance exchange. The exchange will provide an online gateway for up to a million Minnesotans to comparison shop for health insurance and enroll in Medicaid beginning Oct. 1. Lawmakers have about 10 weeks to pass a bill and get it on the governor’s desk. Gov. Mark Dayton’s administration has made great strides in creating a Minnesota insurance exchange: securing more than $70 million in federal funds, mobilizing task forces, signing contracts to build the exchange’s technical backbone (Stawicki, 1/10).
MORE: States Continue Efforts To Advance Health Exchanges – Kaiser Health News.