Dive Brief:
- A joint resolution from Republicans in the Nevada Assembly and Senate aims to abolish the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange, which critics argue is inefficient and a result of federal overreach.
- On Monday the Senate Commerce, Labor and Energy Committee reviewed SJR14, which proposes amending the state constitution to ban insurance exchanges. Later the same day, an Assembly committee discussed AB368, a separate measure that seeks to abolish the exchange through statute rather than through the state constitution.
- If the state insurance exchange is successfully banned, Nevada residents will still be able to obtain insurance through the federal exchange at healthcare.gov.
Dive Insight:
The moves may prove mostly symbolic. In the opinion of Las Vegas Sun political reporter Kyle Roerink, it is doubtful that either attempt to kill the exchange will move forward.
"They don't have a chance," he told KNPR. "They're going to go into a drawer and die."
Supporters of the exchange note that 74,000 people enrolled during the most recent enrollment period.
Notably, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval set a precedent as one of the first Republican governors to support a state exchange and state Medicaid expansion via the ACA.