PA, DE To Identify As State-Based Exchanges

There seems to be a trend in the United States of people formerly identifiable as a person with one set of easily recognized characteristics deciding that they “identify” as having another set of characteristics.

This is also happening with Obamacare exchanges. The Supreme Court will soon announce its decision in King v. Burwell, resolving the question of whether Obamacare tax credits can be paid in states using the federal exchange (healthcare.gov) or only states with their own exchanges. Some states with federal exchanges are trying to “identify” them as state exchanges.

Pennsylvania is one. Delaware is too, but it is called a State Partnership Marketplace. These State Partnership Marketplaces are not defined in the Affordable Care Act. The law defines clear blue sky between state and federal exchanges, and that tax credits can only flow through state exchanges. This difference was supposed to create the incentive for states to establish exchanges. It did not work.

Read the entire entry at NCPA's Health Policy Blog.