INPUT analyst Stephen Moss recaps April’s health care and social services activity.
Like the past few blogs detailing state health care and social services activity, this one is dominated by news surrounding health insurance exchanges. Though an overall slow month for state and local procurement activity, April was rife with news about health insurance exchanges.
Most notably, and perhaps most surprisingly, Oklahoma announced it would return $54.6 million in federal grant funds, making it the largest reform grant ever rejected by a state. This decision on the part of Governor Mary Fallin represents the latest in a series of measures by state leaders designed to undermine federally-mandated health care reform. However, unlike some states, Oklahoma will still work to develop a free-market equivalent of the exchange. Though the “private enterprise network” will use a combination of state and private resources to develop functionality similar to that of the Affordable Care Act-mandated exchange, two questions remain: will this satisfy the federal government, or will these actions lead to a federally-operated exchange with the state, and thus nullify the state effort to usurp federal mandates.
For the complete blog, go here.
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