Officials in conservative states are committed to making their insurance exchanges work even though they have rejected any role in setting up the new marketplaces, a top Health and Human Services official said Thursday. Gary Cohen, the director of the HHS office overseeing most of the implementation of President Obama's healthcare law, said red-state officials are invested in their exchanges' success. Cohen said he met recently with officials from the states that refused to set up their own exchanges, deferring instead to the federal government. "They understand this is the law of the land and the time for debating it is over," Cohen said Thursday at a Senate health committee hearing.
