Arizona prepares for online health exchange

March 27, 2012

Arizona is one of 26 states challenging the requirement of individuals to purchase health insurance or pay a fine under the federal health reform law. But that isn’t preventing the state from moving forward with a key aspect of the law.

Arizona is planning to debut an online health-care insurance exchange in the fall of 2013. The website will allow people to compare costs and details of plans says David Sayen, regional director for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid.

 “And what they’ll bring to the table that perhaps other people don’t is a fixed set of premiums," says Sayen, "a one-price policy where there will be full transparency in comparing one package to another.”

Arizona is one of 20 states receiving federal grants to implement an online health insurance exchange. Thirteen states already have them. Other states plan to let the federal government create and manage them if the Supreme Court rules the federal health reform law is valid.