Important Legislation May Not reach The Governors Desk

Important Legislation May Not Reach The Governors Desk

Important legislation may not reach the governors desk.

Over 100 bills alive in the legislature have yet to be transferred to the governor. The session enters its final days. One of those bills deals with health insurance. Monica Lindeen, the Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance, wants the legislature to let her office create an insurance exchange. The exchange would be an online marketplace for consumers, to compare and purchase health insurance. The federal affordable care act requires states to submit a plan for setting one up by January 2013. The exchange has to functioning by 2014. State representative Chuck Hunter says time is of the essence.

Montana has received a $1 million grant to plan the exchange. Lindeen says, without legislative action, her office is in the dark about how to move forward with implementing the exchange.  Hunter says there is still time.