Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)
One of the requirements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is the requirement that states
create “exchanges” for the public to shop for health insurance, or the federal government will create their own state exchange. Nevada and California have decided to create their own exchanges.
What these exchanges will look like is still to be determined, but the structure is loosely defined by the federal government. In Nevada, the public will not be required to shop or purchase their insurance through the exchange, rather they can continue to work one on one with their broker for client needs analysis, explanation of policy structure and post issue service. In California, it is not clear what will be the role of the health broker.
It is touted that a benefit of shopping through the exchange is the disclosure to shoppers of which welfare programs
and subsidies one may qualify for, that are not being currently disclosed by brokers. Yet in Nevada, there is no plan to require that ‘facilitators” in the exchange to be licensed or to know anything about health insurance, so it is questionable how much assistance and support a shopper would get in determining the best plan for themselves andtheir family, or what service such as claims and billing assistance they will receive without a broker.
Many states have chosen not to create a health insurance exchange under the notion that the law is unconstitutional
and to protect their state treasury. Nevada has benefited from a million dollar grant that was part of the $105 billion illegally voted into the PPACA bill in March last year. It is unknown what the state of Nevada will do should the funds be cut off in any of the upcoming budget battles in congress.
