While six federal grants, totaling $492,891,551 were used to build the New York State of Health Marketplace, the network will need to be financially self-sustaining in the future.
Going forward health plans will incur an average $25 annual surcharge to help fund the exchange.
Executive Director Donna Frescatore says navigators and assisters—people who help others enroll in marketplace coverage—are an important part of the equation.
"All of our budgets for marketplace operation here in New York include a stable source of funding for funding navigators. We have thousands of assisters, as many states do, throughout different regions of the state and the navigator grant funding is a really fundamental part of our budget."
The state health exchange has connected more than 2.1 million New Yorkers with insurance—more than 3 quarters of those were signed up for Medicaid—low income health coverage.