A nervous HHS extends the deadline on states setting up health care exchanges.

Well, if nobody else is going to say it, I will: the federal government did not want to do this.

States received an extra month from the Obama administration to decide whether to build online marketplaces for medical insurance after Republican governors pressed their resistance to the president’s health-care law.

Extending a deadline set for today, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said states can wait until Dec. 14 to declare whether they’ll build their own insurance exchanges. States that opt out can join a partnership with the federal government or let the U.S. run the markets.

Continue reading A nervous HHS extends the deadline on states setting up health care exchanges.