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Insurance Exchange Grows Into $39.5M Operation

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Federal health care reforms have led to the creation of a government agency in Kentucky comparable in staffing to the secretary of state's office, with 30 employees. But it also has scores of contract workers and an annual budget more than 10 times larger, at $39.5 million.  The Kentucky Health Benefits Exchange will help more than 600,000 uninsured residents arrange coverage under the Affordable Care Act. State officials say they'll do it on the cheap, compared with what states that opted to be part of a federally operated insurance exchange will pay. The federal government is proposing a 3.5 percent fee on insurance premiums to operate exchanges for states that didn't create their own, while Kentucky is proposing the existing 1 percent fee on insurance.

Whitney grew up listening to Car Talk to and from her family’s beach vacation each year, but it wasn’t until a friend introduced her to This American Life that radio really grabbed her attention. She is a recent graduate from Union University in Jackson, Tenn., where she studied journalism. When she’s not at WKMS, you can find her working on her backyard compost pile and garden, getting lost on her bicycle or crocheting one massive blanket.
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