LANSING ? Michigan Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville told reporters Tuesday he still hopes his chamber will vote on a proposal to enact a state-federal exchange on the Affordable Care Act this month.
Members of Mr. Richardville’s (R-Monroe) caucus are still discussing various ramifications of the proposal that would have joint management of a health insurance exchange which is to begin operations in October. The full ACA is to take effect in 2014.
The House passed HB 4111 last month providing $31 million in federal money to get the state-federal exchange up and running, with a number of Republicans saying they did not like having to pass the proposal but felt it was preferable to a federal-run exchange.
Since then, conservative groups opposed to the ACA have increased the pressure on Senate Republicans to oppose the proposal. While the Senate approved legislation in the 96th Legislature to create a state-run exchange (that legislation failed to move in the House), supporters of that measure are considerably more cautious in expressing support for the state-federal exchange.
Richardville said caucus members are reading information on “different scenarios” on the issue of the exchanges.
The caucus was “having a pretty robust debate going on right now” on the issue,” but he also said there was an understanding there needed to be a sensitivity to time.
He had initially hoped the chamber would act on the bill in early March, and acknowledged that time-frame is gone.
But he still hoped the chamber would act on the bill in March.
The bill would accept funding from the federal government to help set up the exchange. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services gave its okay last week to the state to create the combined exchange.
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