RALEIGH (AP) — North Carolina lawmakers have no plans to meet a deadline to create a new one-stop shop to help individuals and small businesses find affordable health insurance despite a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
State Senate leader Phil Berger said today that senators do not intend to take up legislation this year to create a health benefit exchange. The 2010 federal health care overhaul requires all states to have an exchange. Legislation passed the state House last year.
State plans for the markets are due to the federal government by this fall. The federal government will create exchanges for states that don’t have them by 2014.  Only 14 states and Washington D.C. have adopted a plan for carrying out the law creating exchanges that steer middle-class households to private plans.