ATLANTA – The federal government’s insurance exchange will begin operating on its scheduled start date of Oct. 1, a senior federal health administrator said Wednesday after the state’s top health official predicted it would not. The conflicting messages came during a half-day conference on health reform hosted by the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. They illustrate the level of uncertainty about implementation of the most sweeping government program in a generation. The exchange is where individuals can shop for coverage from one of six companies and apply for a federal subsidy to pay part of the premiums under the Affordable Care Act that’s also called ObamaCare. “We’ll start on time. I’m not worried about starting on time,” said Marilyn Tavenner, administrator of the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “This may not be a perfect plan, but it is the plan that’s going forward.” Two hours earlier, Georgia Community Health Commissioner David Cook told the same audience he anticipated many hiccups in the launch of the program, which Gov. Nathan Deal has opted to let the federal government run instead of the state. “It will be interesting to see whether the federal government can act on its own mandate. My prediction is that various deadlines are not going to be met,” he said. The questions about how the new law will work are baffling insurance companies and employers. The chief executives of two insurers, UnitedHealthCare of Georgia and Alliant Health Plans both told the chamber audience their firms expect to offer plans in the exchange after next year but want to see how they’ll function first. “There’s a tremendous amount of variables in these exchanges and how they work,” said Rick Elliot, UnitedHealthCare’s president. Large employers that already offer insurance are also evaluating their options. Executives RaceTrac and Southwire both said their companies are weighing whether to continue offering insurance to their workers or to instead give them money to let them buy their own through the exchange. “It’s definitely something we talk about as a large employer. At the end of the day, we just don’t know enough about what these exchanges are going to look like to make a fair statement,” said Whitney Woodward, vice president of human resources at the RaceTrac convenience-store chain. “…It’s absolutely something we would consider.” Hospitals also have their own questions about the health-reform changes, especially charity hospitals like Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah that currently get federal money for treating the uninsured. The federal government is cutting three-fourths of that money starting next year because all Americans should have insurance, but that won’t be true in states like Georgia that decided not to expand its Medicaid plan to cover them. “That means that, in addition to us trying to take more responsibility for managing a population of care, we will have to look at services we provide and those services that are already short on funding and which are a struggle to maintain and look at cutting those services,” said Memorial CEO Maggie Gill. “And that’s not something any of us want.”

A Rome is accused of damaging a victim’s vehicle, according to Floyd County Jail reports. According to the reports: Aqeel Jamal Bates, 34, of 110 Old Airport Road, was charged with felony second-degree criminal damage to property under the Family Violence Act after he cut all four tires on the vehicle, causing more than $500 worth of damage. Bates was being held on $3,500 bond and was placed on a hold for the Gwinnett County Sheriff’s Office.