Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear says early work has begun on the state's health insurance exchange.Under the Affordable Care Act, states must build online marketplaces where residents can compare insurance plans and prices. If states don't, the federal government will run the exchanges. Beshear has promised to sign an executive order implementing the exchange if the Supreme Court rules the ACA is constitutional, but he says the state is already preparing for that outcome.“Since meeting with a lot of the different stakeholders and trying to make sure we get everybody's viewpoint about how to do this and who ought to run it, there's a lot of technical stuff that has to be done," says Beshear. "We have to get computer programs. We're looking at folks who can do all of this because a lot of it is technical in nature.”
Kentucky has received nearly $67 million in federal grants to set up the exchange and keep it state run.
“I think when you look at it like that, almost everybody would say let's keep control of our destiny and create a model that works for us and not just have big brother doing it all," says Beshear.
If the law remains intact, the exchange would open in January 2014.
