The provisions that I looked at for my blog were the Establishment of Health Insurance Exchange; outline of duties; definitions. This section establishes a type of health insurance exchange. Basically, a health insurance exchange is a type of program where consumers can purchase health insurance through a government entity. This will help protect consumers and allow for more people in the population to be covered. The exchange occurs under the Health Choices Administration, who will facilitate the type and amount of offerings of health insurance. The commissioner would then establish a process through which candidates attempt to get bids for the exchange program, negotiate contract terms, and define the benefits. The commissioner would then create a risk pool mechanism to offer the customers protection. This provision also talked about who would be eligible for the health insurance exchange, which included employers and individuals. It then went on to explain the type of benefits that people would receive.
I found this provision in the bill to be quite complicated. Some states in the U.S. have attempted health insurance exchange programs before, only to see them fail. Currently, there are only a few states in the U.S. who have health insurance exchange programs running. If a health insurance exchange program worked out exactly as it should, risk would be spread out greatly and provide insurance to many. Many believe that insurance exchanges are more efficient because they are better organized than a free market. The people who would benefit from this, or gain the most would be the unemployed, the poor, and the uninsured. The people who might lose from this could be the young and healthy who pay low premiums and high coinsurance amounts. Some of the people that may get covered under the insurance exchange program may be high risk and could cause premiums to rise over time. Overall, I’m not quite sure how this would affect our country if a health insurance exchange program was implemented nationwide. I believe it could upset those who are already covered, but benefit those who are seeking insurance coverage.
