Opinion

Act quickly on insurance exchanges

Posted April 04, 2012 5:00 am

The time is now for the General Assembly to develop a plan to implement the 2010 federal health care reform law in Illinois. Each state should implement its own plan. Illinois needs to establish a health insurance exchange to meet the needs of individuals and small businesses. It must be consumer friendly, provide access to quality plans, comparing those plans in an apples-to-apples approach and control costs while being independently governed.

All citizens in Illinois feel the impact of rising health insurance costs, no matter how we receive our coverage. A health insurance exchange can and will control rising costs. Nineteen states have implemented exchanges and in Massachusetts the cost increase has been minimal. How does that compare with the rate increases in Illinois? Tell your legislators and their leaders that we expect them to take action on our behalf now.

Carol Anagnostopoulos

Arlington Heights

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