Insurance CEO Ready to Sue Feds if Gov. Reeves Doesn’t Support State Health Care Exchange

State Insurance Commissioner Mike Cheney is poised to sue the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services if it prevents Mississippi from creating a statewide health insurance exchange due to potential opposition from Republican Gov. Tate Reeves.

Federal officials, who must approve the state’s implementation of its own health insurance exchange, want a letter of approval from the state governor before allowing the state to implement the program, Cheney said.

“I don’t know what the governor is going to do,” Cheney told Mississippi Today. “I think he’ll probably wait until after the election to make a decision. But I’m willing to sue CMS if that’s what it takes.”

The five-term Republican commissioner said his requests to Reeves, also a Republican, to discuss policy went unanswered. The governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment on this story.

Earlier this year, the Legislature passed legislation authorizing Cheney’s agency to create an exchange in Mississippi to replace the federal exchange currently used by Mississippians to obtain health insurance. The bill became law without the governor’s signature.

States that operate their own exchanges can usually attract more companies to write health insurance policies and offer policies to the public at lower prices, and this will likely save the state millions of dollars in payments to the federal government.

Cheney also said he consulted with former Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, who also supported some version of a state-level exchange while in office, about implementing the program at the state level.

Currently, 21 states plus the District of Columbia have state-level exchanges, although three still operate on a federal platform. If he goes through with the case and sues the federal government, Cheney said he would use outside counsel, and several other states have told him they will join the suit.