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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | December 17, 2012 11:44 AM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Anthony M. DeLuca |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Pennsylvania Health Insurance Exchange |
| In the near future, I will be reintroducing House Bill 627 from last session. This legislation establishes a state operated Health Insurance Exchange that is compliant with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). Over the last two years, the Pennsylvania Insurance Department (PID) and various committees in the General Assembly have held dozens of hearings on the ACA. While these hearings demonstrated that there are many questions and disagreements over the federal law, the one issue all stakeholders agreed on was that Pennsylvania should run its own exchange. However, it was announced recently that the Governor has declined to create a state run health insurance exchange by executive order. This means the Commonwealth’s exchange will be run by the federal government. Generally, I believe that programs are run more efficiently by state governments than the federal government because states know how to design programs to meet the particular needs of their citizens. This general rule also applies to health insurance exchanges. Despite the Governor’s decision, there will be a health insurance exchange operating in Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, our exchange and health insurance marketplace will be run by a federal agency that has not historically been involved in regulating insurance products and is not familiar with the particular needs of Pennsylvania’s residents. My legislation will create a state run Pennsylvania Health Insurance Exchange that is based on a National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) model law. Use of the NAIC model law will help promote uniformity and consistency among Pennsylvania and our sister states. It will create an authority which will have responsibility to develop the actual exchanges, and will work with the Insurance Department to do so. The authority will not regulate the insurance industry, but will facilitate access to the information necessary for consumers to select coverage that best suits their needs. |
Introduced as HB225