Republican Members Of Congress Ask Governors To Resist Implementing Obamacare
Senator Jim DeMint, Rep. Michele Bachmann and Rep. Jim Jordan have sent a letter to all 50 governors in the nation asking them to refuse to implement the state-level aspects of Obamacare, most notably the state health care exchanges and the expansion of Medicaid.
“While Republicans in Congress will continue to push for a full repeal of Obamacare, the states can take immediate action to reject these exchanges that will increase health care costs and add more layers of bureaucratic red tape,” writes Bachmann in the letter. “I encourage all 50 governors to do what’s best for the American people. They should refuse to implement an exchange and instead work towards common sense solutions that lower costs and return important health care decisions to patients and their doctors.”
During a special session of the legislature a couple of Republican legislators – Rep. Jim Kasper and Rep. George Keiser – led the charge to implement the health care exchanges, with lobbyists for the state’s largest insurance company Blue Cross Blue Shield assisting. Thankfully, legislators voted the exchanges down. But now that the Supreme Court has upheld the mandate in the law, resisting the exchanges may be a tougher sell.
I had posted previously noting several governors – Bobby Jindal in Louisiana, Rick Scott in Florida, Scott Walker in Wisconsin and Sam Brownback in Kansas – had already announced that they would be refusing to implement the exchanges and Medicaid expansion and calling on North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple to join them.
Hopefully this call to action from members of Congress will spur Dalrymple’s decision. If Governor Dalrymple announces that he’s opposed to the exchanges and the Medicaid expansion it’s unlikely the legislature would challenge him on the matter, or that they’d have the votes to override a veto if they did.
This is a line-in-the-sand moment for Dalrymple. If he can’t muster the gumption to oppose a health care policy most North Dakotans dislike, we may as well have a Democrat in that office.
Here’s the full letter:
