health care exchange

More than 100,000 Missouri residents have signed up for health insurance through a federally run website during the first month of enrollment. 

The number of Missouri residents using a federal website to enroll in health insurance is growing, but not as fast as had been projected.

Legislation requiring health insurance navigators to take an exam and undergo a background check is advancing in the state Legislature.

Senators also voted Tuesday to move forward with a measure that would let people collect up to $50,000 in a lawsuit if a navigator unlawfully releases personal information about a client.

Navigators help consumers sign up for health plans on the exchange marketplace.

The wait is over for Missourians hoping to find out whether the Affordable Care Act lives up to its name when it comes to shopping for government-backed health insurance.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is continuing to push for a Medicaid expansion, but he's open to alternatives that could use federal money to buy private insurance for lower-income adults.

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster apparently has decided not to appeal a judge's decision rewriting the summary that voters will see for a ballot measure on health insurance exchanges.

Missouri Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder is filing a lawsuit to challenge the ballot summary for a measure restricting the creation of a state health insurance exchange without specific approval from lawmakers or voters.

Missouri Lt. Governor Peter Kinder is once again filing suit against a health care measure. He and some other Republican lawmakers have announced plans to challenge the secretary of state’s office on newly issued ballot language for a health care measure that’s slated to appear on the November ballot.

Missouri lawmakers continue debating bills in the closing minutes of the 2012 regular session.

Among the bills passed so far today is one that would require legislative approval before a health care exchange can be created in Missouri.  State Rep. Ryan Silvey (R, Kansas City) accused Governor Jay Nixon (D) of trying last year to create an exchange via executive order.

Republican lawmakers in red states are in a pickle. The Affordable Care Act requires each state to set up a health care exchange designed to bring down insurance costs for consumers. Republicans want no part of anything related to Obama's health care reform law, which they see as a federal intrusion on states rights. But if state lawmakers don't set up an exchange, the federal government will. In September, Republican senators in Missouri prevented the state from accepting $21 million of federal money to lay the groundwork for an exchange. Next door, the Sunflower State is in a similar quandary, reports Bryan Thompson of Kansas Public Radio.

A few months ago, Kansas seemed ahead of the game in preparing for an important requirement of the federal health law. The state had started to plan for exchanges — online marketplaces to help individuals and small businesses compare and buy health insurance.

But politics is intervening.