Some States Look to Avoid Federal ObamaCare Payments

The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment is poised to start mak­ing state-based ex­changes pay for us­ing Health­Care.gov’s tech­no­logy, and that has some states mulling the pos­sib­il­ity of shar­ing ser­vices with oth­ers to con­trol costs.

The Cen­ters for Medi­care and Medi­caid Ser­vices pro­posed a rule last year re­quir­ing that cer­tain states es­sen­tially “lease”Health­Care.gov through a user-fee rate of 3 per­cent of the monthly premi­um the is­suer charges for each policy plan—mean­ing that, for the first time, us­ing the fed­er­al plat­form for state-based mar­ket­places won’t be free.

Last month, mar­ket­place of­fi­cials from sev­er­al states gathered in Port­land, Ore­gon to dis­cuss the rule, in­creased col­lab­or­a­tion, and long-term mar­ket­place af­ford­ab­il­ity and sus­tain­ab­il­ity.