O’Malley defends launch of health care exchange

Gov. Martin O'Malley said the state knew it was taking a risk by launching its health care exchange the same day as the federal government's, but defended the move by stressing the improvements made since it opened on Oct. 1.

Since open enrollment began on the state website, frustrated consumers have complained of multiple problems -- from screen freezes to log-in issues. Although O'Malley did not set a timetable, he said Wednesday he hoped the majority of those issues would be fixed by mid-December.

He said the exchange, Maryland Health Connection, was tested and officials did "all that we could" before Oct. 1.

After that, O'Malley said, there were two options.

"The option we had was, look -- 'Knowing that this is a risky launch, do we go ahead and go now? Or do we hold up and wait?' I made the decision that we go now."

Maryland was one of about 15 states that opted to create their own Web portals, instead of leaving the task to the federal government.

As of the end of last week, according to data released Wednesday, 3,024 people had enrolled in private health plans sold through the exchange.

The state's goal was to sign up 150,000 people for private coverage by early March.

The state expects 95,000 to gain new coverage by January. Of those 95,000, around 84,000 are to be automatically transferred from a state health program to Medicaid.

O'Malley said the state has refrained from marketing the exchange "in earnest" before wrinkles are ironed out. The state is better than where it was "48 hours ago," and the goal is that the majority of the problems be fixed by the middle of December, he said.

One fix made in recent days allows the consumers to reset their passwords. Noridian Healthcare Solutions, the main contractor for the state's exchange, made that change, O'Malley said. Noridian's contract with the state expires at the end of the year.

"It would have been great if we could have launched with perfection on Oct. 1. That didn't happen. So now we work every day," O'Malley said.

Both the federal and Maryland health exchanges have given consumers headaches other than website difficulties.

The White House announced Friday it will hold off on launching its small business exchange until November 2014.

Maryland intended to have its Small Business Health Options Program up and running by October, but that launch date has been delayed twice. That exchange is now expected to launch in April.

Millions of Americans -- including about 73,000 Maryland residents, 50,000 of them CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield members -- were dropped from health plans insurers discontinued because they did not have newly required benefits.

On Nov. 14 President Barack Obama announced states could allow insurers to continue offering those plans through 2014. The Maryland Insurance Administration opted last week to allow insurers to continue doing so.

CareFirst BlueCross Blue-Shield later decided to offer the 50,000 members whose plans were dropped the option of sticking with their plans for one more year.

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