Illinois tabled setting up a state health care insurance exchange, a vital part of the national health care reform law, as state lawmakers wait until the U.S. Supreme Court decision, likely this June, on whether the 2010 Affordable Care Act is constitutional. Compared to web sites where people look for deals on airline tickets, a health insurance exchange is designed to let people that don't get insurance from their employer or the government find helpful information on insurers, allowing them to make a more educated choice.

Like all states, Illinois was supposed to set up an exchange by January 1, 2013. But the state dithered -- a bipartisan study group last year didn't come up with recommendations.

The high court could partly or even entirely invalidate the landmark health care law.