Colorado leading the exchange

Colorado is leading the way in creating a new state-based health exchange that’s a key part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as the federal health care reform act signed into law by President Obama last year.

On June 1, Gov. John Hickenlooper signed Senate Bill 200, a bipartisan measure that had business group and health reformer support and will help lay the foundation for a working health exchange that must be in place by January 1, 2014.

Signing the measure made Colorado the eighth state to comply with PPACA, but Hickenlooper noted Colorado was the first state…