Gov. Mead: Wyo. Will Miss Health Law Deadline

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Gov. Matt Mead says Wyoming won't meet a pending deadline under the federal health care reform law to specify whether the state intends establish a health insurance exchange.

The online exchange would offer the public one-stop shopping for health insurance.

Mead is a longtime critic of the federal Affordable Care Act. He says U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius hasn't responded to a series of questions he submitted to her in mid-July about the health care law.

The Affordable Care Act specifies that states must tell the federal government by next January whether they will set up their own health care exchange, or let the federal government do it. Mead says Wyoming likely won't decide how to proceed until the Legislature meets early next year.