Video: State Ahead of Health Care Reform Game, Former Insurance Coommissioner Says

[bitsontherun tfPBdn3e]WEST POINT, Miss. (WCBI) — A former state insurance commissioner says Mississippi will be ahead of the curve when it comes to new federal health care reform rules that take effect in 2014.

And that’ll pay big dividends in terms of more options and lower costs for consumers in the long run, George Dale said in West Point today. This week, Gov. Phil Bryant and Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney filed the state’s plan for health insurance exchanges with the federal government. The state-run exchange will give consumers a variety of health care insurance choices once implemented.

Many other Republican governors banked on President Obama being defeated and refused to join the exchanges, thinking ObamaCare would be overturned. That was a mistake, said Dale, who was insurance commissioner for 30 years until 2006.

“So now Mississippi has submitted its health care exchange to the federal government for approval and they will be ready to up and go. These states that wait and did not do that now have to start from zero and it’s a possible to the federal government going to be telling them to how to put theirs together,” Dale said.

Dale spoke today to the West Point Rotary Club. Dale served as insurance commissioner as a Democrat. Chaney is a Republican.