State health exchange faring better than others

The head of Nevada’s health insurance exchange told lawmakers Tuesday that, while there are still glitches in the system, Nevada’s exchange is doing much better than those in many other places, including the federally facilitated health exchange that is managing the process for some 30 states.

Jon Hager said 164,000 people have visited the Nevada Health Link website and more than 2,000 have selected a health insurance plan.

“We expect that most people will pay for their health insurance at the end of November into December,” he said.

The deadline to sign up to be insured Jan. 1 is Dec. 15.

He said there were numerous problems when the Nevada computer system went live Oct. 1, but that IT and his staff have made constant changes and improvements to Nevada Health Link.

“As we find problems, we are doing our best to fix them as quickly as possible,” Hager said.

He said a visitor now would have a much better experience signing up than someone who went online when the system started three weeks ago.

There should be a fix this week for problems brokers have had helping customers through the site, Hager said, adding that the Spanish-language version should be operational in November.

“I get the distinct impression our experience in Nevada is distinctly better than the federal system,” said Assemblyman Randy Kirner, R-Reno.

“We are on purpose trying not to compare ourselves to the federally facilitated exchange,” he said. “But do I think we’ve had a better experience than the federal system; I would say it was definitely a wise decision by the governor and the Legislature to do the state exchange.”