national watch
Shaping Washington’s Health Care Exchange
Jason Hagey
Health care reform is here, like it or not. In Washington state, that means officials are busy creating a new
health care exchange. What will it look like? What will it cost? Will there be alternatives to it? AWB and
Lane Powell PC assembled a panel of state and national health care exports to answer those and other
questions during a Nov. 15 forum in Seattle.
at a glance
Politicians and lawyers continue to
wrestle over national health care reform,
but state officials are busy implementing
one of its major components —
a state health care exchange.
The concept of a health care exchange
isn’t necessarily a bad, but its price tag
will be determined by the decisions that
lawmakers will be making soon.
speakers included:
• State Sen. Randi Becker,
R-Eatonville
• James Capretta, fellow, Ethics and
Public Policy Center
The national debate over how best to deliver and pay for health care in America hardly
ended with passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known
to its critics as ObamaCare. If anything, it intensified.
Passage of the law spawned dozens of court challenges, including one that Washington
state Attorney General Rob McKenna signed on to questioning the constitutionality of its
mandate that everyone buy health insurance, or pay a fine. The case could go the Supreme
Court and receive a ruling as early as next summer.
Meanwhile, some opponents of the law are hoping to bring about a reform of the reform
law, so to speak. Others are hoping that a change in the balance of power in the 2012
elections could simply lead to a dismantling of the law.
And backers of the law are moving ahead with its implementation, including Washington
Gov. Chris Gregoire. The governor supported legislation last year that started Washington
on the path toward creating a health insurance exchange, on Hو H