Illinois granted $5.1M for insurance exchange

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Updated: August 25, 2011 12:16PM

The Illinois Department of Insurance has been awarded a $5.1 million federal grant to develop and maintain a health insurance exchange where consumers can shop for coverage.

The nation’s new health care law requires the exchanges to be running in states by 2014

Insurance exchanges will allow people and small businesses to comparison shop online for insurance. The concept has been described as Travelocity for health insurance.

The grant will help Illinois design the information infrastructure. It will go toward hiring staff to plan and coordinate with consultants to create the design features.

Gov. Pat Quinn said in a statement released Tuesday that the grant will help create a strong exchange and develop tools to make it easy for everyone to use.