State HIX Options 'Ironic from Both Sides'

"I still am hopeful because to me it just makes sense that this is what we should be doing. It's too bad that these decisions had to be made this closer to the election because there was a lot of fallout. I am just hoping calmer minds will prevail when the dust settles and people will have a sense of what potentially we are giving up."

What states are potentially giving up, Praeger says, is the authority to determine what insurance companies are allowed to sell on their exchanges and what those plans and their benefits packages will look like.

"I am concerned that we are not going to be there to answer questions from consumers," Praeger says. "And even from plan management standpoint HHS is not going to be able to look at every plan that is prepared for every state because these are still state-specific."