Texas Places Restrictions on Obamacare ‘Navigators’

Texas finalized regulations last week requiring that health-care “navigators”—counselors deployed by nonprofit and other groups to help people get coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s insurance exchanges—undergo criminal background checks and get 20 hours of state training, NPR reports via Houston public radio station KUHF.

Seventeen states that have adopted restrictions on navigators, who are already required to train for 25 hours under federal auspices. State regulators say the aim is to prevent consumers’ personal information from falling into the wrong hands, but Obamacare advocates contend the goal is to impede the roll-out of the federal health law.

As Texas began enforcing its regulations, a federal judge temporarily blocked Missouri from implementing similar rules. U.S. District Judge Ortrie Smith ruled Thursday that, having opted not to set up a state health-insurance exchange, Missouri cannot impose extra requirements on the federal exchange, such as mandatory licensing and additional training for navigators, Bloomberg writes.