PBS Newshour reports on Utah's health insurance exchange, which is being held up as a model for other conservative states. Among those interviewed for the story are Gov. Gary Herbert and former Utah Gov. and HHS Sec. Mike Leavitt.

MICHAEL LEAVITT, Former U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services: This is the way new things are built. Typically, if they're going to build a new power plant using a new technology, they will build a small one, and then they will build it in a large way. If you're going to build a new machine, you do the same thing.

So, the Utah exchange represents essentially an opportunity to try a concept, do it with enough volume that you can test its viability, and then, over time, you begin to scale it up. It's also an opportunity for other states to learn.

BETTY ANN BOWSER: And Utah's Republican governor says the exchange has been a boon for the small business economy.

GOV. GARY HERBERT, R-Utah: It controls the bottom line and it gives predictability and certainty to the business plan. So, businesses are more solvent. Our economy grows. We have more opportunities for people to be employed. And we are also helping to control the costs by introducing competition from the different insurance providers that are competing for your business now.

(See also related Avik Roy blog post.)