Preparing for Marketplace Launch – Are Feds Ready?
With health insurance marketplaces approaching launch date, a lot of questions still remain unanswered. While some states are ready with their own health insurance portals, others are relying on the services of a federally facilitated marketplace to comply with Obamacare post October 1 deadline.
In this reliance,
although they are in the safe hands of the federal government, most states and Americans living in those states are still waiting to get a clear picture on offerings and premiums on these marketplaces. This impending delay from federal authorities is making everyone question – is the government ready to implement the marketplaces and handle all the challenges by the deadline?
In counter to these perplexing questions, state authorities are maintaining that there still is a lot of time for individuals to choose plans that will suit their requirements. According to current calculations, consumers have 10 weeks to choose a plan that will cover them post January 1, 2014. The state machinery will allow consumers to select a plan till December 15, a date that will be comfortable for everyone. Another six month will be available for consumers to enroll themselves in the plans, by March 31, 2014, and enrollment will reopen in October 2014. In short, officials are maintaining that there still is a lot of time at hand.
However, even after the timelines in place, there are certain important targets that federal authorities need to achieve within the next 10 weeks for everything to function ideally.
• Authorities need to ensure that a minimum threshold number of insurance companies present their offerings for the marketplace. The pivotal concept of these state health marketplaces is driving down costs with high competition. If there are not enough competitors, the premise of the idea is challenged.
• Authorities need to establish communication between healthcare software solutions at different locations. When the system is fully operational, a number of computer systems will exchange data and communicate information and data among each other. This communication will be imperative for smooth functioning of the entire process.
• Education needs to be imparted to consumers from different sources. Government needs to play an instrumental role in providing accurate information about subsidies available, plans to be purchased and compliance to Obamacare for avoiding penalties. All this information needs to come from a federally regulated source.
Other than the tasks at hand, there are some other facets of the plan rollout that the federal authorities need to tackle. The constant pressure from opposition to delay Obamacare compliance is one such power game in play. Technical challenges, logistical issues, and time pressure are just some other aspects which have been troubling the feds since some time. An interesting way to approach the problem would be to study the cases of states like New York and California that already have their exchanges ready for launch. Some of these states have even released premium rates and additional information that can help consumers plan their move. Together with these case studies and planned tasks in mind, federal agencies can prepare for a hassle free health insurance marketplace launch.
