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 with a divided legislature to do so.

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Now, the state has until July 1 to seat a nine-member board of directors to direct and oversee the implementation of the exchange.

As can be quickly noted, this is a tight timeline but Colorado has taken up the challenge and is so far hitting the milestones in meeting the requirements of the federal health care law.

The bill was sponsored by Sen. Betty Boyd, a Lakewood Democrat, and Rep. Amy Stephens, a Republican from Monument. It was a compromise between those who strongly support the federal health care law and those who want to maintain as much state control as possible in setting up the exchange.

Not creating an exchange – where businesses and individuals can shop for health care insurance and save money through bulk buying power – would have resulted in Colorado having to be part of a federally-created exchange with far less say over how it would work.

Within the next couple of weeks, Gov. Hickenlooper will appoint five members of the exchange board of directors and the House and Senate leadership will each appoint two.

These appointees will have the opportunity to take a visionary stance in helping bring down the cost of health insurance in Colorado. That, after all, is in large part what health care reform is all about.

We hope Colorado remains a leader in this endeavor.