Connecticut- Don’t reinvent insurance exchange

As policymakers debate how to form Connecticut’s health insurance exchange ahead of a 2014 deadline, they may not need to look far for an answer.

Mercer, a national benefits consulting firm hired by the state to analyze the insurance market, is suggesting that Connecticut could adopt the exchange run by the Connecticut Business & Industry Association rather than create a whole new state-run entity, warning that two similar but separate exchanges may not be able to co-exist.

In its analysis, Mercer, which had been asked by policymakers to help establish policy direction and implementation strategy, also warns that very few small employers, particularly those that don’t receive government subsidies, will likely join an exchange run by the state because it won’t offer products that aren’t already available in the marketplace or that can provide a pricing advantage.

“The creation of a SHOP Exchange in Connecticut is complicated by the presence of an existing private exchange,” Mercer said in a recently published 400-page report. “Duplicating what the CBIA has done would be difficult, expensive, and disruptive.”

http://www.hartfordbusiness.com/news22609.html

Hat tip: Hartford Business Journal