U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius recently announced that Illinois, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Tennessee and Washington will receive grants worth more than $181 million to finance Affordable Insurance Exchanges.
Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the exchanges would begin operating by 2014 to help individual Americans and businesses shop for health policies. Of these states, most are receiving initial grants, but Washington is further along in the process. With those awards, 34 states and the District of Columbia have been allocated Establishment grants to support their efforts to build exchanges. The total value of these grants exceeds $1 billion.
These grants are available through 2014 and the funding they provide may extend beyond that year, depending on the circumstances. States which fail to establish a working exchange in time, however, may end up with one created by the federal government. If they achieve their purpose, the exchanges will help Americans to receive substantial health coverage through employee benefits or a private policy.
How much of a long-term impact the grants and efforts will have depends largely on the decision rendered by the U.S. Supreme Court, which is expected to rule on the constitutionality of the PPACA soon.
