A top Utah [health benefits] exchange official says, “Nearly every exchange function already exists in the private sector.” A Minneapolis company called Bloom Health is already delivering the primary goal of supporters of a “market-friendly” exchange — i.e., letting workers use tax-free employer dollars to purchase their own insurance — without any new government bureaucracy or regulations.
Read the whole article: Just Say No to Implementing Obamacare.
Also, Politico reports on private exchanges:
Rather than operating with public subsidies, these new private marketplaces have companies ponying up a “defined contribution” — a set amount that employees can use to buy a plan, with the option to add in some of their own money to get a richer benefit package.
In the public exchanges, a nonprofit or government agency will oversee the marketplace — unlike these private exchanges, which will be administered by insurance companies.
It’s a model that the private exchange officials hope will gain traction as employers look for ways to cut their costs without dropping health coverage completely. …
To some observers, the growing interest in private health exchanges indicates that employers would be less likely to send their employees to the public exchanges to take advantage of public subsidies.
