Lawsky: Insurance Exchange Ill-Timed

The late-session push for the enactment of an insurance-exchange measure in order to comply with the new federal health care law was hobled by the simultaneous debate over same-sex marriage, Department of Financial Services Superintendent Ben Lawsky said today.

Lawsky, whose department is the result of a merger of the old banking and insurance departments, said Republican lawmakers he?s spoken to remain supportive of the possibility of an exchange.

?The interactions I?ve had with Republican senators on this, most of them have been supportive of the idea and I think there was bad timing at the end of last session,? he said. ?It came up, if you recall, right when gay marriage was getting done and I think it was asking for too many things to get done all at once that were all somewhat, you could call them politically charged. This one shouldn?t be, but because it was bundled up with gay marriage, things went off the rails.?

There appeared to be a three-way agreement on the exchange earlier this year, but some Senate Republicans balked the idea, referring to the health care law by the conservative pejorative ?Obamacare.?

Lawsky told reporters after attending an event at a church in Albany that the exchange remains a major priority for Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

?This is a very complex thing to set up and to regulate,? he said. ?To get it done on the timeline that we need to get it done by, to get the federal funding that would come with it, we really need to start moving forward with it now. So, no impacts yet because it wouldn?t start by 2013 or 2014, but we need to get it started now.?

Lawsky?s department is also beginning to form a commission, known as the Mortgage Foreclosure Prevention Unit, aimed at stemming the expected increasing tide of mortgage foreclosures in New York. He said it remains unclear how many mortgages are in danger, but talks are ongoing as to how to provide new regulationsr in order to curtail the foreclosures.

Source: http://www.capitaltonight.com/2012/01/lawsky-insurance-exchange-ill-timed/

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