"When Governor Cuomo came in, he said let's get underway, let's get moving.  We decided we wanted to run a state exchange, rather than have the federal government run it. We thought that was important for New York. So we put the resources behind it, brought in outside stakeholders, brought in consultants to do reports, made some key policy decisions.  There's still a lot of work to do, but we're really confident that we're going to have a great exchange."

Constantakes says the state expects to enroll more than a million uninsured New Yorkers through the exchange.

This is the second time the Obama administration has extended the deadline for states to decide on creating their own exchanges.  Seven states still have not decided. 

Several Republican governors waited until the presidential election, hoping President Obama would lose, and the health care law would be repealed.  Now those states are scrambling to retain state control over their own exchanges.

Like New York, Vermont  started work on their health exchange last year.