Health Care Thoughts: Crazy like Foxes
by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt
Health Care Thoughts: Crazy like Foxes?
Several governors are announcing they will not begin building the state health exchanges required by PPACA (Obamacare). Some of this is pure partisan, and some a stall until November.
Failure to comply will result in the feds installing exchanges in those states.
The states can apparently opt in to the exchange at a later date.
Could this be a means of allowing the feds to do all of the heavy lifting, and then jumping in at a convenient time later? Is there more than partisan thinking here? Interesting?
So the federal government goes in and sets up exchanges. In other words, more like “single” payer with an insurance twist. Isn’t this further from “states rights” than taking the money and setting up your own?
Another foxy element might be that for a space of time the lack of health support (either the new exchanges or the old supports) might induce the most chronically ill poor to leave the state for a more compassionate one, or die of their untreated illnesses.
Currently, Texas, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kansas, Nebraska and South Carolina,have
suggested they will opt out. (That I could find online in a few minutes search.) All of them are below the US median wage, and all but two (TX, FL) receive substantially more in Federal funding than they pay out in taxes.
Why buy into an inevitable if your state’s MO depends on using the labor of the poor without offering them benefits, instead depending on the taxes of the other states to fill the gap?
Noni
http://visualizingeconomics.com/2010/02/17/federal-taxes-paidreceived-for-each-state/#.T_6_-5jnGm4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_income
Also interesting, some of the states will likely contract with those (evil) private insurance companies for data and administrative support.
Governors who opt for the federal exchanges also can point to intrusive Washington bureaucrats forcing themselves upon the people of the state. Whenever there’s a negative local story involving the exchange, or even health care generally, they can blame the inept feds. Taking control of the exchanges presumably has different political advantages, but also real responsibilities.