Connecticut exec named CEO of federal marketplace

Kevin Counihan,  CEO of Connecticut's insurance exchange,  will take the same post managing the federal exchange set up under the Affordable Care Act,  the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday.

That puts him in charge of North and South Carolina's subsidized health insurance programs as well,  since state officials declined to set up their own marketplaces.

Counihan

Open enrollment for 2015 begins Nov. 15.  The new leadership team is charged with making this year's process work better than the notoriously glitchy startup last fall.

Counihan has worked in health care and insurance for three decades.  He oversaw Connecticut's creation of an exchange that signed up about 79,000 people.

The challenges of his new job are plentiful,  Jeff Cohen of WNPR and Diane Webber of Kaiser Health News report:  "Healthcare.gov serves states that are actively hostile to the law in the Deep South, states that are embracing the law to some minimal degree and states that are active partners in running the exchange."