This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Former Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt said Saturday that governors need to take the lead in creating health insurance exchanges or the federal government will dictate how the exchanges should be run.
"This is a profoundly important moment for states," the former Utah governor said. "States need to lead. Too often, we have just deferred this to the federal government, and the federal government needs guidance [from the states] to do it."
The Affordable Care Act, signed by President Barack Obama last year, requires states to create a health insurance exchange in which consumers can buy health insurance policies. The exchanges are due to be in place no later than 2014.
The Obama administration published its preliminary rules for the exchanges Monday. Steve Larsen, director of the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said the administration wants to give states flexibility.
"It's just the truth that we want to try to accommodate state innovation and state programs," Larsen said. "Our door is open to hear about your state programs."
But several governors were concerned that the federal government was imposing a mandate on the states that will become a burden.
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad said his residents are "confused and, I think, very upset with what's going on" with the implementation of health reform. He said that consumers ultimately need to take "ownership" of their health decisions and the costs.
Spencer Eccles, director of the Utah Governor's Office of Economic Development, said Utah's Health Exchange, which launched in 2009, now insures more than 3,000 people and has served as a model for what other states might implement. He said he is confident the federal government won't force changes to the state exchange.
"Our goal is to continue to lead out," he said. "The health exchange existed in Utah long before Obama thought about it. We believe in a Utah solution for Utah."
Eccles said the state has met with the federal Department of Health and Human Services to explain to them what Utah is trying to do.