MN estimates HIE costs at $40M

Minnesota budget officials estimate it could cost the state as much as $40 million to run its health insurance exchange in 2015. The state-based online insurance marketplaces are a cornerstone of the federal health care overhaul. State officials are trying to figure out how to come up with the money. For more than a year, the U.S. government has doled out millions of dollars in federal grants to help states get their insurance exchanges off the ground and operating in 2014. So far, Minnesota has received about $70 million in federal money to build its exchange—everything from designing the exchange to hiring staff to making contracts with information technology vendors. But the gravy train stops in 2015 when state exchanges must be financially self-sustaining.