Another State Opts Out Of Obamacare Exchanges
Over the weekend, in a post urging Governor Jack Dalrymple here in North Dakota to be a leader in opposing the state-level implementation of Obamacare, I noted that governors in three other states had already done so. Governors Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker and Sam Brownback of Louisiana, Wisconsin and Kansas (respectively) have all said that they want no part of the Obamacare law’s expansion of Medicaid or the creation of state-level health care exchanges.
You can add Florida’s Rick Scott to that list:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Florida will not implement two provisions of the U.S. healthcare law involving an expansion of Medicaid for the poor and creation of a private insurance exchange, Governor Rick Scott said on Sunday. …
In a statement, the governor said the healthcare law would not aid economic growth in his state “and since Florida is legally allowed to opt out, that’s the right decision for our citizens.”
Scott said expansion of Medicaid, which provides healthcare for the poor, would cost $1.9 billion while the state has other health programs in place. Premiums would rise on the insurance exchange, he said.
A total of 35 states have resisted implementation of the health care exchanges so far. That may change with the Supreme Court upholding the law, but that ruling also gave states the tools to resist the federal policy.
The feds cannot punish the states for refusing to expand their Medicaid programs, and the health care exchanges were always optional. If the states do not establish exchanges, the federal government will do it for them.
Some argue that it would be better for the states to establish their own exchanges, but that is operating on the notion that the states have some policy advantage to gain by doing so. Such is the stuff of fantasy. The states have nothing to win by implementing the exchanges other than the opportunity to pay for a large chunk of it.
That’s one of the dirty little secrets of Obamacare. A lot of the costs of the policy were hidden by pushing them off on the states through these exchanges and the expansion of Medicaid. The states should refuse to go along.
The feds made their bed. Let the feds lay in it. For opponents of Obamacare, the battle line for fighting the law has shifted to the state level.
Tags: florida, obamacare, rick scott
