Other Voices

“Long before state health insurance exchanges became a centerpiece of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform, they were darlings of think tanks that prescribed market-based solutions to provide medical insurance for the uninsured. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires states to create exchanges through which small employers can shop for coverage for workers and through which people who need individual insurance plans can shop for them. … It's an open question whether Missouri's Republican-controlled Legislature has the discipline to get a highly functioning exchange in place or if it will be hijacked by an ideological fringe more interested in grandstanding than governing.”

—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

“The cost of health insurance is placing an ever heavier financial burden on businesses and individuals. Even worse, increasing numbers of people are going without any health insurance. ... In an effort to slow down the increases in health insurance rates, the state Legislature is considering Assembly Bill 52, which would allow the California insurance commissioner or the state Department of Managed Health Care to reject rate increases they deemed to be excessive. We believe it is time for this state to join 35 others that require prior health insurance rate approval.”

—Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.

“Results from a groundbreaking study prove what many healthcare advocates have assumed but some fiscal conservatives questioned: Being enrolled in Medicaid is better for the poor than being uninsured. Researchers with the respected National Bureau of Economic Research ... found that people who go from being uninsured to being insured under the state-federal program for low-income Americans are more likely to take care of their health and feel healthier, happier and more financially stable. ... The research suggests that the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act in 2014 cannot come soon enough.”

—St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times