The Obama administration has given new leeway to states to choose their level of involvement in running health care exchanges. States are required to create the exchanges under the Affordable Care Act.
The exchanges will allow individuals and small businesses to shop for health care plans.
Ari Adler is the press secretary for Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger.
He says Bolger doesn't plan to move forward on the exchanges until the Supreme Court rules on the Affordable Care Act.
"If we are put in a position where we have to have some sort of health exchange, " says Adler, " [Bolger] is willing to work with the governor and others to put something in place at the state level -- so we do not have the federal government coming in and controlling our health care in Michigan."
Governor Snyder says he wants the Legislature to send him a bill that would create an exchange. He's said waiting too long could leave Michigan vulnerable to missing the federal deadline for creating the exchanges.
He's directed some staff to do preliminary work on setting up an exchange. That work includes creating a database of possible health care plans, and reviewing software programs that other states are developing.
Earlier this year, Michigan Radio's Jennifer White sat down with Helen Levy, a Research Associate Professor at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research who worked with President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisors in 2011.
White talked with Levy about how health insurance exchanges work and what health care options they may provide to individuals.
Take a listen to their conversation below or read a transcripthere.
http://cpa.ds.npr.org/michigan/audio/2012/01/LevyInterview.mp3
