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March 22, 2013 at 09:55 AM
Managers of the District of Columbia have agreed to phase out the district’s non-exchange small-group health insurance market over two years, instead of shutting all of it down in 2014.
Members of the board of the District of Columbia Health Benefit Exchange Authority voted unanimously recently to adopt a “two -year transition to a health insurance market in which insurers will compete for business based on price, quality, and choice,” exchange officials said.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) calls for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to work with state agencies to set up exchanges, or Web-based health insurance supermarkets, for individuals and small businesses of all states and the District of Columbia by Oct. 1.
The District of Columbia has decided to run its own exchange, rather than letting HHS provide exchange services for its residents.
District officials have argued that the district is too small to have a successful exchange unless it gets all individual and small-group business into the exchange, and that the market is not especially competitive today.
“One insurer controls more than 75 percent of the market, benefits are uneven, and premiums often jump by 10 percent to 20 percent a year,” officials said in the exchange decision announcement.
