Florida holds the line against Obamacare

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Florida Gov. Rick Scott says no to health care law

Florida Republican Gov. Rick Scott says he will not implement the state health insurance exchanges mandated in the 2010 federal health care law despite President Barack Obama's re-election.

The Sarasota Herald Tribune reports:

Speaking on the New College of Florida campus following a meeting of the state's university governing board, Scott said it will cost taxpayers and business owners too much to expand Medicaid and set up health insurance exchanges as called for under the law.

"No one has been able to show me that that health care exchange is going to do anything rather than raise taxes, raise the cost of our companies to do business," Scott said, adding that expanding Medicaid would also require tax increases.

Scott is one of many Republican governors who have resisted the state programs required by the law before Election Day, but he's the first to voice continued resistance after the election.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/florida-gov-rick-scott-still-won-t-implement-153204322--election.html

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Then PPACA requires HHS to do it for him. Floridians will have access to an exchange either way.

The only true opt-out is on the Medicare expansion. If that's the slice of people he wishes to disadvantage, the 100-133% of poverty households, then fine.. that's a political decision he will have to defend come election time.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

[quote name=' timestamp='1352480654' post='5812314]

Then PPACA requires HHS to do it for him. Floridians will have access to an exchange either way.

The only true opt-out is on the Medicare expansion. If that's the slice of people he wishes to disadvantage, the 100-133% of poverty households, then fine.. that's a political decision he will have to defend come election time.

AARP will support him for protecting the quality of free healthcare for rich old people under Medicare.

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related article. only talks about the exchanges, no reference to medicaid expansion.

Why Republican governors want to leave Obamacare to the feds

Republican governors in Florida, Kansas and Virginia all announced yesterday that they would not set up health insurance exchanges. That means the federal government will have to take on the task itself.

...

Just for a minute, put yourself in the shoes of a Republican governor who has done very little to prepare for the health-care law.

...

You waited out the Supreme Court decision, hoping they’d overturn the law, then the election, hoping the law would get repealed, and, all of a sudden, the law is here to stay and you barely have any time to implement it.

You could slap together a health insurance exchange at warp speed, hiring all the consultants you can find in the next few weeks. This decision is risky: If the health insurance exchange malfunctions (and it might, given the time constraints), the blame lands squarely at your feet. It’s also time- and energy-consuming.

That’s the challenge that Pennsylvania insurance commissioner Mike Consedine worries about when he weighs the possibility of building an exchange.

“Our worst fear is rushing to build something for the sake of building it and having it not be functional,” he told me in an interview this week. “The whole idea is helping consumers make smart choices. And we’d actually be doing the exact opposite.”

That’s option one. Option two is leave the task to the federal government. They already promised that they’ll make sure every state has an insurance exchange standing by Jan. 1, 2014. They have a huge interest in making sure these exchanges work really, really well: This is, after all, the Obama administration’s signature legislative achievement.

We don’t quite know how well the federal exchange will work, but that’s almost irrelevant to a governor. If it functions really well, then the health law rolls out smoothly. Perhaps the state even takes control of the exchange within a year or two. If it bombs, the finger-pointing is directed toward the federal government — and not at the governor.

...

There are definitely benefits to more control over an insurance exchange. But for a state coming to the process late in the game, they could easily be outweighed by the many possible downsides.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

There was something on the news yesterday about HHS getting ready to create the Federal exchanges, without any of the oversight or restrictions that would be put in place for the state programs. Perhaps the Republican governors are knowingly, or unknowingly, permitting what HHS was planning on doing anyways.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Scott's days are counted anyways. That buffoon is gone come 2014. Floridians have learned what tea party governance looks like and it's safe to say that they do not approve. Scott is a failure and will get the boot in two years. Then Florida will move forward. Until then, as AJ points out correctly, the Feds will do the job that Scott is incapable of doing.

Scott and the Tea Party Republicans in Tallahassee asked Floridians to pass an anti "Obamacare" constitutional amendment. Floridians replied: ** Off! Don't confuse Florida with the Tea Party. The latter is on the way to irrelevance in the state.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/alaskas-parnell-becomes-2nd-gov-to-refuse-to-implement-obamacare/

Alaska’s Parnell Becomes 2nd Gov. to Refuse to Implement ObamaCare

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/alaskas-parnell-becomes-2nd-gov-to-refuse-to-implement-obamacare/

Alaska’s Parnell Becomes 2nd Gov. to Refuse to Implement ObamaCare

Another incapable buffoon that needs the Feds to do the work for him.

Edited November 10, 2012 by Mr. Big Dog

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Another incapable buffoon that needs the Feds to do the work for him.

Would you like to compare Florida's bank roll to Alaska's?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Would you like to compare Florida's bank roll to Alaska's?

We have probably the most incapable buffoon running the state. He's a Tea Partier. Sorry for the redundancy.

[Love's JAA 100]

We have probably the most incapable buffoon running the state. He's a Tea Partier. Sorry for the redundancy.

Can't be as bad as my state. We've got a club forming, of former governors passing from the governor's mansion to the federal pen.