What If More States Had Set Up Obamacare Exchanges?

Politico's Kyle Cheney and Jennifer Haberkorn have made the case that Republican non-collaboration with Obamacare has brought a completely federally controlled healthcare system closer to reality.

Right now, 36 states rely on HealthCare.gov, the federal exchange, to enroll people in health coverage. At least two more states are opting in next year, with a few others likely to follow. Only two states are trying to get out.

If Republican-governed states had set up Obamacare exchanges, they would have either “succeeded” (like Connecticut’s) or failed (like Oregon’s). States where exchanges had “succeeded” would have been dug in deeper in Obamacare, with newly empowered state bureaucrats invested in the law’s progress, undermining the state’s attempts to advance alternative, patient-centered reforms. States where exchanges had failed would simply shut them down and yield to a federal exchange — the same outcome as not having set up a state exchange at all.

Read the entire column at John Goodman's Health Policy Blog or The Independent Institute's Beacon blog.