March 6, 2013

Many state governments continue to resist setting up the health insurance “exchanges”—now rebranded as “marketplaces”—that form a core part of Obamacare.

“Right now, it’s more practical for states to hold off on the exchange mania,” Heritage Foundation health care scholar Ed Haislmaier writes in the Hill. For one thing, these exchanges impose huge new costs on states, and the alternative, letting the federal government run the exchanges, is far less costly.

He continues:

Recognizing the inherent risk and faulty foundation of ObamaCare’s exchanges is the first important step for states. The next is rejecting the proposed Medicaid expansion. There will be many who argue a Medicaid expansion, like an ObamaCare exchange, is a good idea. But the promises of no cost, more control and helping low-income Americans fall flat. Like the exchange, the Medicaid expansion threatens to usher in long-term costs, zero flexibility for the existing program and greater dependence on government-run healthcare.

Heritage recently sent lawmakers a plan, America’s Opportunity for All, that explains how to get America back on track. It urges Congress to repeal Obamacare and create a patient-centered system based on free enterprise.

Do you think the states will be able to hold off Obamacare?