Carrie Banahan is the executive director of the Kentucky Health Benefits Exchange, and was in charge of rolling out the Affordable Care Act... in a red state.

For many, the rollout of the federal HealthCare.gov insurance exchange was considered a disaster. Users were met with site crashes, and interminable wait times. For states that launched their own exchanges, the story was often the same. However, one of the few states that got everything right was Kentucky... and that is due to the work of Banahan. When Gov. Steve Beshear decided that his state would create its own exchange, he turned to Banahan for the job. “It really requires an understanding of the Medicaid program, health policy and Kentucky insurance laws,” he said. “There aren’t many people here who have that kind of background.”

Banahan did. A 32-year veteran of Kentucky state government, she was the executive director of the Office of Health Policy from 2008-2012 and was responsible for the administration of the Certificate of Need Program, and Health Planning and
Development, for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. During that time, she also served as the implementation director for Medicaid Managed Care in which 540,000 individuals were transitioned from a fee-for-service delivery system to managed care. She has also served as deputy commissioner of the Department of Insurance, and as deputy Medicaid commissioner.

Banahan graduated from the University of Louisville.