Washington, Oregon, Others among States with Conditional Exchange Approval

December 21, 2012

As of last week, six states have been granted preliminary approval for their health insurance exchanges by the Obama Administration. The announcement came on Monday the tenth of December, and the states included were Connecticut, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Washington.

Under the requirements of the Affordable Care Act, all fifty states must establish an exchange where small businesses and uninsured people can shop for health insurance coverage using federal subsidies.

The exchange in Oregon is known as Cover Oregon, and its conditional approval is due to the state not having every required action completed, though it will be ready to operate by October.

Likewise, the state of Washington has been granted conditional approval to move forward with its state exchange beginning October 1, 2013. The exchange will be operated in partnership with an online portal called Washington Healthplanfinder, which will go live in October, though coverage will not begin until January 1, 2014.