An open letter on this week's manufactured crisis

[benveniste]

Dear Governors and Legislatures of (about) 30 states:

Grow up.  You don't like Obamacare.  Some of y'all feel that the Federal Government overstepped its authority no matter what the Supreme Court said.  We get that.  But by throwing a snit fit, you are allowing the Feds to take even more power from you and doing your constituents a disservice.

As of

Comments

[jane_dennis]

I'd just as soon let the federal mgmt $ go to states that want Obamacare, like we scooped up a bunch of train $ when Walker (Idiot-WI) cancelled their project. Yes, I know that isn't the law in this case, but hey... Otoh, I srsly doubt that the feds will be worse at implementing whatever coverage is going to get offered in all states than say, Rick Scott or Rick Perry would be, so the benighted goops who voted against their own interests multiple times will still benefit. But you don't srsly believe that when crunch time comes, they'll actually let the federal gov. implement things, do you?

[benveniste]

But you don't srsly believe that when crunch time comes, they'll actually let the federal gov. implement things, do you?

Jane, I think the states which refuse to step up will have very ability to stop the federal government from doing so. They can't exactly block websites at a state-by-state level, and any attempt to punish participating insurance companies would get met by a very fast lawsuit and injunction.

The one obstacle I see is that the Affordable Health Care Act is so badly written it isn't 100% clear that the Feds can subsidize policies set up under their own exchange rather than a state exchange. I suspect that court case will take a few extra months to resolve.