Mo. won't run health insurance exchange by 2014

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - Missouri will not set up an online marketplace for health insurance by the year 2014.

Gov. Jay Nixon said Thursday his administration will inform the federal government that it won't be running a state-based health insurance exchange when they're due to begin under the federal health care law. That means that the federal government will step in to create an insurance exchange in Missouri.

Nixon said a federally run insurance exchange is not ideal. But Missouri voters approved a measure Tuesday preventing the governor from establishing a state-run exchange unless lawmakers have authorized it. And lawmakers have not done so.

States face a Nov. 16 deadline to notify the federal government if they want to run their own insurance exchange.