AUGUSTA — The state will soon get nearly $6 million in federal funding to set up the health insurance exchanges mandated by the Affordable Care Act of 2010.

Maine this week became one of 13 states awarded grants by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Maine is also one of 26 states challenging the constitutionality of a key component of the health care law, derisively called “Obamacare” by Republicans.

Six of the states that received federal funding this week are party to the lawsuit seeking to strike the law’s individual mandate that requires most Americans to buy health insurance.

Setting up the health insurance exchanges — essentially marketplaces that will offer health plans — is required by the law, but some states are moving faster than others. While DHHS said that several states are falling behind on efforts to meet the 2014 deadline to implement the exchanges, Maine and the 28 other states that received funding are ahead of the pack.

Augusta Democrats say such progress should prompt Republicans and Attorney General William Schneider to withdraw from the lawsuit set to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in June 2012.

“Democrats are happy to see that the governor is moving to implement the president’s health care law,” said Rep. Emily Cain, D-Orono, the House Democratic leader. “It is a clear sign that it’s time for Maine to get out of this overtly political lawsuit and focus on how we can lower health care costs for Maine people and small businesses.”

According to DHHS, the grant award to Maine will be used by the state’s Dirigo Health Agency to build the infrastructure for the exchanges and integrate existing Medicaid eligibility systems.

States are mandated to have the exchanges in place by 2014 or the federal government will do it for them.

State Republicans and Gov. Paul LePage would like to see the individual mandate stricken, an outcome that some believe would undercut the entire law.

However, the GOP believes the exchanges will dovetail with the Legislature’s recent overhaul of the state’s health insurance laws. Advocates for that overhaul, known as LD 1333, said the exchanges would help consumers and businesses shop for insurance plans, regardless of whether the federal law is overturned.

The exchanges will offer plans from other states, a component of the federal law and LD 1333.

The federal law continues to be a political issue. Congressional Republicans campaigned vigorously against the law during the 2010 election season. The strategy helped the GOP take control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Republicans also gained control of several state legislatures, which in turn led to additional states, including Maine, joining the lawsuit that has made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Recent polling suggests that support for the law has decreased slightly since last year. However, a survey by the Kaiser Health Foundation found that some of the unpopularity is proxy for public dissatisfaction with President Barack Obama and Congress, not the law itself.

Overall, the poll found that 44 percent of respondents had an unfavorable view of the law; 37 percent saw it favorably.

More than 50 percent favored expansion of the law. Large majorities supported individual elements, including a requirement that health plans provide easy-to-understand benefit summaries (84 percent favored), provisions that award tax credits for small businesses (80 percent), subsidies to help some individuals buy coverage (75 percent), closing the so-called doughnut hole for Medicare recipients (74 percent) and prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage based on pre-existing conditions (67 percent).

The individual mandate, however, remains unpopular. According to the Kaiser survey, 63 percent found the provision unfavorable.

 smistler@sunjournal.com

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