By : ED TIBBETTS
Source : http://wcfcourier.com
Category : Small Business Grant
The Obama administration recently awarded Iowa more than $7.7 million to begin setting up a health insurance exchange, a central element of the controversial federal health care reform law.
The grant comes despite Iowa being one of the states challenging the law's constitutional merits.
Administration officials said Tuesday that Iowa is one of 13 states to receive about $220 million in grants.
The administration said the Iowa Department of Public Health will use the funds for a "financial assessment and budget analysis to determine the financial resources required to provide assistance to individuals and small businesses, coverage appeals and complaints."
According to the administration, "the state will also develop a detailed exchange business process and associated business requirements for the Affordable Insurance Exchange IT system" and "will conduct focus groups and stakeholder outreach regarding user interface design and program development."
"Around the country states are getting to work," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on a conference call Tuesday.
Sebelius also suggested more than half the states have made "significant progress" toward creating the exchanges.
Twenty-nine states have received such grants. One, Rhode Island, has received two because officials are farther along in planning.
The Iowa Legislature has yet to pass a law setting up its exchange. In fact, Gov. Terry Branstad has joined other Republican governors in challenging the law.
The law requires marketplaces be operational by 2014, but the plan is for people to begin enrolling by October 2013.
Source: http://wcfcourier.com/news/local/state-gets-grant-to-set-up-health-insurance/article_bb7d274b-1493-5025-a9bf-7dbe1c55fc06.html
