Minnesota has received a $26 million federal grant to help build a health insurance exchange, a one-stop marketplace where individuals and small businesses will be able to purchase health coverage among various policies.
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The federal money will allow the state to move ahead on creating the building blocks of the exchange -- particularly the high-tech backbone needed to run an online site and call center where consumers and businesses can buy private insurance and where low-income Minnesotans can sign up for public programs.
The money will go to designing "what's under the hood of the engine," said Commerce Commissioner Mike Rothman, whose department will oversee the exchanges. "It's putting the operations in place to be able to turn the switch and say, the exchange will work."
The state is in the process of assessing competitive bids from vendors who want to build the exchange website, Rothman said.
Minnesota is one of 10 states to get a share of $229 million in awards announced Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The state received two smaller planning grants last year worth $5.2 million.
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Last week, three powerful Republican House committee chairmen signed on to a DFL bill to establish a health insurance exchange. The bill is based on a framework hammered out by a task force of health care industry and community members. Republicans have declined to be part of the task force, which Rothman chairs.
http://www.startribune.com/business/140088523.html
Hat tip: Star-Tribune
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