Linda Gorman, Director of the Independence Institute‘s Health Care Policy Center, has written an issue backgrounder on Senate Bill 11-200, which would create a Colorado Health Benefit Exchange. Some excerpts:

State exchanges must comply with detailed federal regulations. Only qualified health plans, as defined by the new law, may be offered, and exchanges must meet specific reporting, structural, and contracting requirements, produce required ratings, and provide internet and telephone access. The Secretary of Health and Human Services has yet to issue either regulations giving specific standards for state exchanges or a model to provide guidance. …

The federal government is willing to open an Exchange in Colorado at no cost to state taxpayers. If the federal exchange is a failure, the state could presumably create an exchange to replace it. Instead, this bill proposes to create an unaccountable bureaucracy that will undoubtedly support itself by levying new fees/taxes on the purchase or sale of health coverage. It would continue to operate even if the federal health care law motivating it is repealed. …

The bill does not specify whether participation in the Exchange is voluntary. The [Exchange] Board could therefore support legislation compelling exchange membership, and payment of its fees/taxes on health insurance. As ObamaCare mandates the purchase of health insurance, the bill allows the Exchange Board to create a monopoly insurance broker with unlimited taxing power. While the bill says that “all carriers authorized to conduct business in the state may be eligible to participate in the exchange,” it does not say that they shall be eligible.

Read the whole backgrounder (pdf, 2 pages): Senate Bill 11-200, The Colorado Health Benefit Exchange.