Cuomo Gets 'Fireworks,' Cost Concerns, After Executive Order to Establish Exchange

Vincent C. Ashton, President & Chief Executive Officer of HealthPass New York, which serves approximately 3,800 businesses and about 30,000 employees and dependents in the New York City metropolitan area, called the executive order “courageous,” and said he was “inspired by his leadership.”

Not all were enthralled, especially the Republican leadership in the state Senate.

Sen. Greg Ball, R-Patterson, Putnam County, does not see cost savings but more spending the state can ill afford. He issued a statement that said “any rush towards enacting Obamacare is more political than reality. The promise of federal funding is not without strings and the program itself will ultimately, if enacted, cost New York taxpayers billions of additional dollars that we do not have. …. We can and should make landmark reforms, including reigning in big insurance in New York, but moving forward now to enact Obamacare is simply not prudent.”

Mr. Ashton added, “The Governor’s courageous Executive Order has opened the path to a New York State Health Benefits Exchange. We are inspired by his leadership, and now that this path has been established, the hard work begins. As with all complex projects, ‘the devil is in the details.’

Cuomo’s press release was filled with supporting statements from executives with the American Cancer Society, the New York Hospital Association, Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield and AARP New York, to name several.

As states are sometimes (painfully) aware, a state that chooses to operate its own Exchange must demonstrate to the federal government, by January 1, 2013, that its Exchange will be able to begin accepting applications by October 1, 2013, and will be operational by January 1, 2014, and if the state does not demonstrate operational readiness of its own Exchange, its residents will be required to participate in a federal Exchange.