Connect For Health Colorado Explores Turning Over Operations To The Feds

<p>(AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)</p>
<p>An employee of Connect For Health Colorado, the state&#039;s health care exchange, explains options and procedures to a walk in client signing up for insurance, in Denver, Monday March. 31, 2014. </p>
Photo: Connect For Health Colorado walk-in client (AP Photo)
An employee of Connect For Health Colorado, the state's health care exchange, explains options and procedures to a walk in client signing up for insurance, in Denver, Monday March. 31, 2014.

A key committee of Connect for Health, Colorado’s health insurance exchange, discussed several scenarios.

Those include continuing as is, or moving most operations, including the key technology functions, to the federal exchange in 2018.

Spokesman Luke Clarke says the discussion was sparked by state lawmakers who are concerned about the exchange’s sustainability as federal grant money winds down.

“It’s not us coming forward and saying ‘hey this is something we ought to do," he said. "It’s not us coming forward and saying this is what we ought not to do. It’s we were asked what would it look like to do this.”

If the move was made, Coloradans would shop for insurance through the federal website.

Colorado’s exchange, like others nationally, faces high costs and lower than projected enrollment.