Governors Declining Health Benefit Exchanges

I was interviewed in a story for Health Care News about states whose governors are declining to implement Obamacare Health Benefits Exchanges.  Read it online here.

Jindal: No Obamacare Exchange for Louisiana

Louisiana governor Jindal has told POLITICO Pulse that he will not establish an Obamacare Health Benefits Exchange in his state. According to POLITICO, this is the governor's first definitive statement on the question.

As I discussed a few days ago, Georgia governor Deal also took some time to make a final decision on a Health Benefits Exchange. But he eventually made the right decision: No exchange.

A shrinking number of Obamacare's opponents continue to insist that states can establish narrow exchanges, like Utah's apparently ineffective one, that will serve as a "firewall" against Obamacare. Governors like Deal and Jindal know that any exchange can only serve as fertilizer that will allow Obamacare's roots to grow deeper into the soil - and making repeal more difficult.

(Plus, I suppose that Deal and Jindal would like to avoid President Obama campaigning in Georgia, Louisiana, and nationwide in 2012 saying "Health reform is very flexible and responsive. Look: I made a deal with these Republican governors!".)

Nathan Deal Makes the Right Deal for Georgia

Very good news from Atlanta, where governor Nathan Deal has reconsidered his previous decision to collaborate with Obamacare by establishing a Health Benefits Exchange in Georgia. Although a bill was moving through the legislature, governor Deal reconsidered and decided to stall an exchange, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. This follows my column opposing exchanges in that same newspaper a few days ago.

Georgia Should Shun an Obamacare Health Benefit Exchange

Unfortunately, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal continues to collaborate with the Obamacrats on establishing an Obamacare "exchange".  Today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran "pro" versus "con" columns by myself and Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Secretary of Health & Human Services.  Read them both here.

Defeating Obamacare: Governors Respond to Judge Vinson's Decision

This month's Capital Ideas column, which focuses especially on the responses from Florida governor Scott and Georgia governor Deal.

Read the article here.

States React to Judge Vinson's Ruling

Florida has led 25 other states to an overwhelming judicial victory against Obamacare in federal court, but, unsurprisingly, some states are ignoring Judge Roger Vinson’s decision that Obamacare — in its entirety — violates the U.S. Constitution.

Friday Facts & Follies: The Small-Group Health Insurance Market

Friday Fact:

Every Friday, I look forward to the Georgia Public Policy Foundation's "Friday Facts". Today's included a quotation from GA state senator Eric Johnson, who made a great statement about school choice:

"Right now, depending on your ZIP code, you’re told where to go to school. We don’t deliver health care that way. We don’t say if you live in Fulton County you have to go to Grady [Hospital]. We don’t say if you live in Fulton you have to go to Georgia State University. We don’t tell people with food stamps they have to spend them at Kroger. But we say that if you live in this neighborhood you go to this school unless you’re wealthy enough to afford private school.”

Well, ok: the state does not tell you what hospital to go to. However, if you're a small business (usually defined as up to 50 full-time employees), the state might tell you what health insurance to get according to your ZIP code. It's called small-group reform, and it washed over states in the early 1990s.

I've written about the failure of California's small-group reform, which resulted in fewer insured Californians in small businesses and professional associations. The reform compelled private health insurers to bundle small businesses into no more than nine regions, designed by ZIP code, and forced them to offer the same plans at the same rates, largely irrespective of each employer's risks, within the regions. Of course, premiums went up dramatically.

Friday Folly:

Talking about small-group health insurance, I received a truly idiotic letter from my health insurer today. I suppose all the carriers are pretty much the same with respect to paperwork, but this letter was a howler. In order not to discriminate, I'll call the carrier "CignAetnAnthem Blue Net".

The letter seeks to determine whether I am eligible for Medicare, demanding the following: "Please indicate the reason(s) you are eligible for Medicare benefits: Age 65 or older?"

In order for me to be at least 65, I would have had to be born in 1944. Rest assured, I was born many years later. Indeed, had I forgotten this fact, CignAetnaAnthem Blue Net helpfully typed my birthdate and year at the top of the letter!

And then they ask me how old I am: Incredible!

But I can't really blame them: It's the Government that has fragmented our access to health insurance, sentencing us to different ghettos: Medicare, Medicaid, individual health insurance, small-group health insurance, large-group health insurance, self-insured (ERISA-regulated) jumbo health benefits, etc.

The Government needs to stop imposing this fragmentation and allow every American family to choose its own portable & guaranteed-renewable health policy.