NC Has To Decide About Health Exchanges

North Carolina has until Friday to decide whether to build its own health exchange or let the federal government run one for the state. It's a requirement of the Affordable Care Act, which seeks to provide health care insurance to everyone. Al Delia is the Acting Secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services. He says whatever path the state chooses, there's a whole series of decisions about infrastructure that need to be made.

Al Delia: What kind of information technology systems would have to be built, a lot of decisions based about how to make this a sustainable exchange, inotherwards, where's the money gonna come from for this, are we gonna charge fees, are there going to be appropriations or other sources, and whether we do a state based exchange or a federal exchange or a hybrid or a partnership would help drive which of those decisions we even have to make.

Delia says DHHS has been conferring closely with lawmakers, the insurance commissioner, the governor and the governor-elect on the issue. He says the department has also been working with UNC's Institute of Medicine for three years to be prepared for the new policy.