New York to create state health insurance exchange
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ALBANY, N.Y.—New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed an executive order to create a state health insurance exchange.
Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, states are required to establish their own comparative, market-style health insurance exchanges by October 2013 or be rolled into a federally managed exchange.
Gov. Cuomo's executive order on Thursday to establish New York's exchange came almost eight months to the day after Republican state senators in Albany, N.Y., rejected federal funding meant to finance the project.
In a statement, Gov. Cuomo said the exchange would reduce the cost of health insurance for residents, business owners and local municipalities in New York.
“The sky-high cost of insurance in New York is driving businesses out of the state and preventing lower-income New Yorkers from being able to afford needed coverage,” Gov. Cuomo said. “Establishing the health exchange will bring true competition into the health care marketplace, driving costs down across the state."
With the exchange in place, Gov. Cuomo said small-business owners should be able to significantly reduce their health care spending, while the costs for individuals buying their health care coverage directly from an insurer could drop by as much as 66%.
The exchanges will be available to individuals and small employers. Lower-income uninsured individuals buying coverage through the exchanges will be eligible for federal premium subsidies.
Until 2017, only employers with 100 or fewer employees can offer coverage to their employees through an exchange. However, for plan years beginning before 2016, the state can restrict eligibility to employers with no more than 50 employees. Beginning in 2017, the state can allow all employers regardless of size to participate in the exchange, but would not necessarily be required to do so.
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