Can’t Wait on Exchange

A legislative panel exploring the impact of the new federal health care law on Oklahoma will likely suggest that the state should do the minimum amount required to comply with the act, the committee’s chairman said.

State Sen. Gary Stanislawski, R-Tulsa, said the 10-member Joint Committee on Federal Health Care Law, is expected to recommend Oklahoma develop some type of health care exchange, or online insurance marketplace, so that the state complies with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Stanislawski said he anticipates a bill will be introduced in next year’s legislative session to set up the framework for an exchange in the hopes that the U.S. Supreme Court will strike down a key provision of the law that requires citizens to buy health insurance.

Stanislawski said he’d prefer not to comply with the federal act, but he acknowledged that if Oklahoma does not have the framework established for an exchange by January 2013, the federal government will set up and operate its own exchange for the state.