Expert: Idaho Has No Time For State Exchange

Idaho has run out of time to establish a state-run insurance exchange required by President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul, meaning working with the federal government on a solution is virtually unavoidable.

That’s according to a consultant advising a 13-member panel organized by Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter to gather information on what Idaho should do.

Robert Mitchell, a Denver-based consultant with KPMG, told Otter’s Health Insurance Exchange working group Tuesday that completing everything for Idaho to run its own exchange by 2014 is just too complicated.

Mitchell likened the task to lining up jets at a busy urban airport and getting them airborne without running out of gas.

He says what remains to choose is a hybrid, state-federal combination, or ceding control of an insurance exchange to Washington, D.C.