Federal Government Rejects Mississippi’s Proposed Health Exchange

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney says federal officials have rejected the state’s proposed insurance exchange.

Chaney made the announcement late Thursday afternoon. An exchange is an online marketplace where people can buy health insurance.

Under the federal health law that President Barack Obama signed in 2010, every state is required to have an exchange so people can get coverage starting in January 2014, much of it federally subsidized. States that don’t create their own will have one run by Washington.

Chaney submitted an exchange proposal to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in mid-November.

Gov. Phil Bryant objects to the federal healthcare law and sent two letters to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius trying to block Chaney’s proposal. Bryant and Chaney are both Republicans.