Idaho rarely looks to the federal government for the right answers. Governor Butch Otter now has the opportunity to keep a federal bureaucracy at bay, by creating our own Idaho solution to a critical issue: health insurance exchanges.

The issue is complex, but our answer needs to be simple, and it needs to be given soon. The federal government has asked us to make a decision: Do we want to have more direct control over our own health insurance market, or are we willing to cede control to Washington, D.C.? According to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the states have to declare in December whether to create health insurance exchanges.

A health insurance exchange is really an online marketplace, much like any number of travel websites, where different insurance plans and options are available for comparison and purchase. A health insurance exchange lays out health insurance options for easy comparisons, explaining plans in terms of benefits and costs.

Time, unfortunately, is not on our side. Governor Otter has until Dec. 14 to make a decision. While nobody likes to be forced into making a choice, we believe we have a good option before us in choosing a state-based health insurance exchange.

An exchange will be a great tool for Idahoans to research and purchase their insurance coverage, because it will help keep costs low. An exchange will also help businesses do the same, and insurance brokers and agents will all get access to the system. For a state with a high rate of uninsured people - as much as 29 percent in some counties - this tool is important.

We're grateful to see this discussion taking place. Since 1981, a group of human resource professionals, along with other business executives, have participated as members of the Employers Health Coalition of Idaho (EHCI) to lend expertise on health-care issues. We would be dropping the ball if we didn't join in this important discussion now under way in Idaho.

We've now got important research to back up the selection of a state-based insurance exchange. A state work group appointed by Governor Otter spent months meeting and researching the state's options in the area of health insurance exchanges. After all of their study, the work group voted 10-2 to encourage the governor to pursue a state-based health insurance exchange.

To educate and inform this discussion, the Employers Health Coalition of Idaho has joined the Idaho Health Exchange Alliance, a wide-ranging collection of more than 350 Idaho businesses and individuals advocating for this smart solution.

Anyone concerned about Idaho's health-care destiny will see this as an important opportunity. We know that when the federal government does things like this, they tend to be more expensive, and they don't have that local touch that Idahoans know and trust.

For these and many other reasons, an Idaho-based exchange provides a valuable option for Idaho. This solution would be better for Idaho consumers, and for businesses we know and trust.

Member companies individually provide health-care benefits to their employees and their families through a variety of arrangements. The EHCI member companies provide more than $345 million in employer-sponsored health care by covering approximately 154,000 employees, retirees, and their eligible family members.

For three decades, our coalition has pledged to focus on health-care options that improve the health of employees and their families. Building a health insurance exchange ourselves is an example of this sort of smart option. We encourage Governor Otter to pursue this solution.

For more information please visit www.ehci.org.