Jan. 24 (Bloomberg) — A Missouri law requiring licenses for counselors who help consumers find health insurance on the Obamacare exchanges was temporarily blocked by a U.S. judge, setting back a measure by a state hostile to the federal health- care overhaul statute.
U.S. District Judge Ortrie Smith in Jefferson City, Missouri, said the state, which declined to establish its own exchange, was barred from interfering with a program set up under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Missouri is among at least a dozen Republican-led states that imposed restrictions on insurance exchange counselors, known as navigators, including licensing tests, fines as high as $1,000 and training that almost doubles the hours required by the government. The ruling was the first of its kind in a navigator case and calls into question the constitutionality of similar laws elsewhere, said Jay Angoff, an attorney with Washington-based Mehri & Skalet PLLC, which represented the Missouri groups.
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