Weathervanes to the winds of change
Bob Dylan famously squawked, “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”
States are pivotal “distributors” of new health insurance products through ACA via the insurance marketplaces (a.k.a. exchanges). And states are certainly at risk, and under pressure. The state insurance commissioners now find themselves front and center in the deployment of the Affordable Care Act. State insurance commissioners are tasked with keeping health insurance premiums under control. Some states have experience being the free-market string to the insurance premium kite, while other states are less experienced.
Not generally high-visibility, attention-seekers, the commissioners are now beginning to raise their profiles and publically address their legitimate concerns about the ACA.
We should all be paying attention to the tone and content of their messages and positions, as they are the weathervanes to the direction of the storm of changes being brought on by the ACA. We don’t need a weatherman; we just need to pay attention to state insurance commissioners.