A Wisconsin advocate is meeting with other state counterparts to figure out ways to roll out health insurance exchanges. The key piece of health care reform is to take effect in 2014. States are to implement their own exchanges which would allow consumers to shop around for the best deals in coverage.
David Reimer, Director of Community Advocates Public Policy Institute, says he would like model private sector exchanges after the health plan of state government workers in Dane County. He says the plan covers 24 percent of the roughly 350,000 insured residents of Dane County who don’t get coverage from federally subsidized programs. Reimer says state government buys health insurance annually for $1,000 less for single coverage and $3,000 for family coverage than the average of the other 71 counties.
Reimer is a member of a panel from the non-profit National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI), trying to iron out details of the exchanges and suggest them to federal and state lawmakers. The panel’s first meeting is later this month.