Health Insurance Exchange Hearings Begin in New York

Officials are staging a series of public hearings around New York on designing the state’s health insurance exchange as part of federal health care reform.

The exchanges are intended to create a market for small businesses and individuals to buy affordable coverage starting in 2014. States have been given leeway to set up the programs.

The hearings are scheduled to begin today in Albany and head to Syracuse on Tuesday. Those sessions will be followed Wednesday in New York City and Thursday in Rochester. There will be a call-in forum on May 23.

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Agents groups in the state have called the creation of the state’s insurance exchanges one of the top issues affecting producers in the state. Several groups have banded together to rally lawmakers in support of keeping a significant role in the health insurance market for agents.