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Taking the first steps toward a New Jersey healthcare exchange
The law — at least on this point– is clear. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) mandates that healthcare insurance exchanges — virtual marketplaces that let individuals and small businesses comparison shop for health coverage — must be established in all states by January 2014.
Defining the details of an exchange, however, is left up to individual states. That task brought analysts, advocates and researchers to Trenton yesterday, to a stakeholder forum co-hosted by NJ for Health Care and the NJ Citizen Action Education Fund.
Discussion among panelists and findings from a report released by Rutgers University last month reveal that there is general agreement that New Jersey should create its own exchange — streamlined and simple to use.
Panelist Ray Castro, senior policy analyst with research organization New Jersey Policy Perspective, said that while New Jersey is already ahead of other states in terms of health policies, “by having our own exchange we’re going to be able to tailor the exchange to meet the needs in our state. (Roman, NJ Spotlight)