Republican Governors Opt for Federal Obamacare Exchange

Rick Perry, Scott Walker, and Sam Brownback decide against state-run exchanges

A number of Republican governors have announced they won't create state-specific online healthcare exchanges allowed under Obamacare, but will instead default to the exchange set up by the federal government.

In explaining his decision, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R) implied that setting up a state-based exchange wouldn't be worth the trouble, since Wisconsin taxpayers wouldn't gain meaningful control over healthcare polices even if the state did implement its own exchange.

Maine Governor Paul LePage (R) cited costs to state taxpayers as a reason for not implementing a state exchange, according to the Huffington Post.

Building the exchanges, according to the Washington Post, would typically take two to three years. The Obama administration wants to have exchanges certified by January 1, 2013.

The Obama administration extended the deadline for choosing to implement state-specific health insurance exchanges from today to December 14, 2012, after Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, chair of the Republican Governors Association, wrote a letter asking for more time to decide.

Currently 16 states have signed up to build their own exchanges - including Democratic California and New York, and Republican states Mississippi and New Mexico.

Via the Huffington Post

Which do you think will work better - state-run insurance exchanges, or the federal government's exchange?

[RobertJHarsh]

Kasich has already said Ohio will not have an exchange either. The Lt. Gov, Mary Taylor is also the Secretary of Insurance and she says it is better for the Feds to put together an exchange for $2 million instead of Ohio paying $40+ million for one. Since she appears to understand insurance and the idiots who shat out Obamacare DON'T, I'll go with what she says.

[Dan_Tien]

Didn't you know that "the idiots who shat out Obamacare" were dominated by healthcare insurance professionals?
"Wendell Potter left his job as head of communications for Cigna, one of the nation’s largest health insurers, to speak out against what he sees as an industry corrupted by Wall Street expectations and greed. He’s now the Center for Media and Democracy’s senior fellow on health care, a senior analyst at The Center for Public Integrity, and author of Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans."

[Dan_Tien]

"Feeney: Didn’t the health insurance industry support the act?

Potter: The industry was supportive of the act because of the individual mandate. They don’t want to be told that they have to accept all people who apply for insurance, that they can no longer drop people from coverage when they become sick, or that they have to spend at least 80 percent of their premium dollars on care without at the same time having the requirement that all of us buy coverage. If you don’t have that provision, they’ll have to provide coverage to the sickest people but they healthiest may opt out, so their profits will begin to drop.

Their hope is that the law will be upheld, and that they can influence the elections — because their real objective is to keep the individual mandate intact but get their friends in Congress to weaken or strip out the consumer protections.

Feeney: What is the industry doing to influence Congress, the elections, even the courts?

Potter: They spent an enormous amount of money to influence the debate on health care reform, and goal number one for them was to make sure there was an individual mandate in the bill. The second goal was to make sure there was not a public option. They got both. They were not able to keep many of the consumer protections from winding up in the bill, but they got their two main objectives.

Of course now with Citizens United they’ll be able to spend a lot of money trying to influence elections, and they will do that by helping to finance a lot of issues campaigns through super PACs. Last year, the health care industry, through its trade association, America’s Health Insurance Plans, funnelled almost $86 million to the Chamber of Commerce to finance the Chamber’s advertising campaign to influence the health care reform debate. They have a lot of money, and they will deploy that money in different ways, some in ways that really can’t be traced.

And what they’re doing now is, they filed this brief with the Supreme Court and I think made it clear to the justices, particularly the conservative justices, that the individual mandate is necessary, and that originally it was a conservative idea. It came straight from the Heritage Foundation."

[Real4WheelDrv]

State or federal, bueracracy is bueracracy, it's a race to see who will be least efficient.

[Souljah]

Yup... this gives them the opportunity to make a case to shoot down Obamacare if things go wrong..

[DARSB]

Why would a state duck out of the chance to design an exchange that would meet the needs of that state's population? Sure, the feds will do it for them, but seriously, how would that bet better?

[jessejaymes]

It's called hypocrisy.

[woodtick57]

My favorite was little Ricky Perry, who said it was too big an intrusion into states righhts, so now the Feds come in and decide it for his state. You really cannot make up shit that funny...

[blue_yahoo]

Cost of doing business with Federal oversight is the answer. Why pay for something the Feds will do for you without the additional cost to the state's taxpayers plus you don't have Feds coming into the State to audit the program.

[DARSB]

@blue_yahoo Obamacare covers the cost of installing the exchanges no matter who does it, but applications for those funds had to be submitted about a year back. I guess the GOP governors were convinced Obamacare would be repealed after President Romney took over. As for audits, well, of course the feds will be doing those, just as they do now for Medicare, Medicaid and Medicaid-waivered programs.

[marine1]

The fed created it, let them manage it cause they are so good at that kind of stuff.

[Jasonopolis]

I haven't even read the bill, but then again nobody else has either....

[Phreakwars]

If nobody has read it, then how do you come to the conclusion that it's bad?

[Jasonopolis]

@Phreakwars Where are you reading that I said it was bad???? Are you hearing voices in your head?

[Phreakwars]

@Jasonopolis Oh, I just have a sixth sense.

[Jasonopolis]

@Phreakwars So tell me what my dead grandfather is trying to say to me... and then specify which one....

[Phreakwars]

@Jasonopolis For or against Obamacare, answer.

[PNWest]

The Feds will do a better job than almost any of the red states.

[bizaroWorld]

Yeah, because my State of Illinois (the Bluest of Blue States) is 48th in job creation and #1 in unfunded pensions and has been run by Chicago Democrates for 40 years.

Red State Indiana has a balanced budget and has been welcoming all of the Illinois businesses that have relocated there since our governor raised corp. taxes last year by 66%

[PNWest]

@bizaroWorld Then why don't you move to Indiana?

[bizaroWorld]

@PNWest
I'm too dug in here and my family all lives within two miles. It doesn't really matter anyway now that Chicago has another 4 years in the White House. Everything they did to screw up Illinois will be national soon.

[PNWest]

@bizaroWorld Always look on the bright side.

[dances-weebles]

@bizaroWorld um... what makes you believe that it's up to either the state or the federal gov't. to create jobs. that's really, really a ridiculous notion, you know.

[Hireman]

Trick question... Neither

[Phreakwars]

Good, this just makes the case for a SINGLE PAYER system go easier. I hope ALL the states decide to just let the Feds do it.

[Buggsy888]

But how is it going to be paid for??

[LGRepublican]

@Buggsy888 I'm sure they'll just raise taxes on the "rich". That's the left's answer for everything.

[martydotcom]

Obamacare is not free health care. You will pay for it. You insured now?

[Phreakwars]

@Buggsy888 It's called a MANDATE. You will be required to PAY FOR YOUR OWN, and everyone else will be required to PAY FOR THEIR OWN, NOBODY is getting a free ride contrary to what Rush and Hannity have told you.

[Buggsy888]

@Phreakwars Rush and Hannity didn't tell me jack...jack. My friend got a letter stating she will be on medicaid,,then turned over to Obamacare. She was in a car accident,,the insured doesn't have enough to cover long term care. (his ins. is capped at 25K) So, Obama care will take over paying,,,,,for free.

[bizaroWorld]

The States know that it is a waste of time and effort to set up their own exchanges. By the Presidents own admission his goal is single payer. The way to get to single payer is to make State exchanges and private insurance so onerous that people and businesses just give up and pay the fine.

I think the Governors are just pragmatic enough to accept the enevitable.

Congrats Libs on instituting Single Payer. I hope it works out well as you think it will.

[bek]

I hate Republicans.

[LGRepublican]

Speaking on behalf of Republicans, we don't care and the feeling's mutual.

[bsking]

all the federal 1 will work better... except the federal 1 has no legal right to open up exchanges in state... so by the stage refusing to do it the federal government's hands are tied... thank God for the 10th Amendment. screw Obamacare

[MRMacrum]

If Paul LePage is for the Fed set up there is something wrong. He's a sleaze bag of the first water. I will have to talk with some folks I know I can trust. And no, it ain't you Neo.

[Angela]

I don't care which one you get they both will over tax your pocketbook, wallet,sock or where ever you keep your money.

[Phreakwars]

Would you rather pay DOUBLE the current medicare tax of 1.6% for health care, or 25% of your paycheck for Blue Cross/Aetna/Etc ( who take a huge percentage of that for profit) as people are paying now? The argument that it will "TAX MY POCKETBOOK" doesn't bother me. The government could charge me 10x more then what they do now for medicare out of my paycheck and it would STILL be far far less then what mine and others insurance premiums are. You need to put your hatred for the black man in chief aside and see the big picture here. These mandates were a REPUBLICAN idea whether you want to own up to it or not. A few years back it was a "GREAT" idea, but now that the "socialist black man" went along with it, all of a sudden it's bad? It's time to come back to reality here deary.

[Thunderchicken]

Obamacare isn't a reality yet. The battle has moved to the states and won't be over for a while..

[RedFloppyShoes]

Neither. Leaving health care choices to someone other than the individual (specifically the government) is nothing less than control over that person's freedom of choice...and there nothing meaningful in that.

[jeffbrightone]

Thanks the Lord for the great Rick Perry, Scott Walker, and other Republican governors who stood up to the Obama regime and prevent the forcing of the Obama laws that deny the freedom of the American people according to the constitution. The sovereignty and economic freedom of great states such as Texas, Ohio, Wisconsin should not be sacrificed to the socialist Tyrant Obama who seek to remove the sovereignty of the states of the union and convert America to third world welfare country for the poor, criminals and terrorists of the world that cross the border or overstay their visa to get free healthcare from Obama in return to their votes for him.

[LGRepublican]

Makes me proud to be from Wisconsin and even prouder to say I Stand with Scott!

[martydotcom]

A great decision facilitating the move to what Obamacare should have been a single payer system

[idlbeokay_bob]

These are the same SOBs that want the federal government out of their business? Unless the can suck federal up money.

[Waynestew]

Republicans always saying Let states do things. Is that not their mantra. There seems to be a lot of hypocrisy here. Looks like they just want to try to make things more difficult. I wish they were on the side of the American people and not their own party.

[bizaroWorld]

Read the earlier posts. The Republican Governors know that it is a waste of time for them to set up exchanges - they are suppose to fail by design to push us to single payer faster.

[Waynestew]

@bizaroWorld Why not try it. This is something America has NEVER tried. If America was truly the greatest country that so many on the right proclaim it to be we would find ways to do things better than other countries. I read the article and this just proves the Republicans are fake is Hell. They always want to yell out states rights and killed it something that they want to restrict nationally. Good example is DOMA

[Thunderchicken]

Then there's that whole freedom and self determination thing.

[Waynestew]

@Thunderchicken Then there is that whole compassionate and realistic thing.

[Thunderchicken]

@Waynestew

And you want to government in charge of that?

[Denizen_Kate]

"Building the exchanges, according to the Washington Post, would typically take two to three years."

Does anyone know where the Post is getting that figure? It's basically a web site, isn't it? Who takes three years to set up a web site?