The health insurance exchange in Georgia

While the Georgia state government is opposed to President Obama's health care reforms, it is acting to set up a "health insurance exchange", which is central to the Federal legislation.

The committee charged with considering the health insurance exchange has the blessing Gov. Nathan Deal, who of course considers the health-care law as unconstitutional.

Georgia has joined with other states to mount a legal challenge, but if this is unsuccessful the health insurance exchange will become law.

The health insurance exchange is designed to encourage health providers to up the quality and bear down on the price of health plans, in Georgia and the US generally. Participating plans are not allowed to discriminate against applicants based on health history, pre-existing conditions or future risk.

In short, according to Time magazine, it's a government-administered marketplace or portal (via a website) where private or public insurance policies are sold.

President Obama's definition is, a "one-stop [health insurance] shopping marketplace where you can compare the benefits, cost and track records of a variety of [health insurance] plans" .

The health insurance exchange plan also aims to create a pool for small businesses (small firms can group together to acquire health insurance) to, in theory, provide similar costs for SMEs as larger companies.

Ga. panel looks into health insurance exchange - The Washington Post