Obama’s new challenge: Setting up ObamaCare insurance exchanges
It’s a situation no one anticipated when the Affordable Care Act was written. The law assumed states would create and operate their own exchanges, and set aside billions in grants for that purpose.
“There’s no way around it — this is a big job,” said Sabrina Corlette, a health policy expert at Georgetown University.
Since different states have different insurance markets and different eligibility requirements for Medicaid, Obama’s Health and Human Services Department can’t simply take a system off the shelf as a one-size-fits all failsafe.
“You can’t simply deploy one federal exchange across the board,” said Jennifer Tolbert, director of state health reform at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
“Each state is different — their eligibility systems are different, their insurance markets are different. [HHS is] going to have to build these exchanges to fit into the context of each state.”
Blowback
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Operating a top-down command economy is hard? Who knew?
forest on November 26, 2012 at 11:03 AM
I’m sure the Lightbringer has it in him. Just look what he’s done for unemployment and the debt over the last 4 years.
changer1701 on November 26, 2012 at 11:05 AM
And the kicker? They’ll call in Mitt for help.
WisRich on November 26, 2012 at 11:06 AM
Much like the rest of this administration
They never anticipate what their actions will incur
cmsinaz on November 26, 2012 at 11:08 AM
The states are the ones to deal with this not big bro! Please states do your 10th for the citizens of your states. Tell bhocare to pound sand!
L
letget on November 26, 2012 at 11:08 AM
What?
BacaDog on November 26, 2012 at 11:09 AM
This is why federalism is the answer to nearly all of our economic (and many other) woes.
Foolish, emotional Leftists want an authoritarian “single payer” system. But this would never, ever work in a country as massive and culturally and economically diverse as ours. We’re the most diverse country in all of human history, for pete’s sake.
Lower and middle-income families to be hardest hit, as usual.
visions on November 26, 2012 at 11:10 AM
Bark won’t lift a finger, he doesn’t have either the work ethic nor the mental acuity to manage anything more complex and demanding than setting the dinner table.
No, he will simply tell someone somewhere to “Just get it done!” and head off to the putting green like he has done with everything else. And when disaster strikes, as it will, Bark will blame everyone but himself.
Bishop on November 26, 2012 at 11:12 AM
Good, let’s press our states and GOP Congress critters to make it so difficult it can’t succeed.
States need to continue refusing to cooperate and the House needs to gut funding for HHS.
Charlemagne on November 26, 2012 at 11:12 AM
And if there are not enough people to make an exchange viable, they will force people into them. How come they always fail to mention this?
Blake on November 26, 2012 at 11:17 AM
E
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities??? Whose I wonder?
I thought the Supremes said that States don’t have to sign on for all that extra Medicaid? If that is so, these exchanges can tell someone to go to the state, but the state does not have to provide it. That is a good reason not to participate at all.
Fleuries on November 26, 2012 at 11:18 AM
And I hope he tells them to go pound sand
ConservativePartyNow on November 26, 2012 at 11:23 AM
Barky won’t be doing jack as Bishop said.
I hope the Czars in charge go full on statist and force something so onerous on the states that the states start nullification.
The federal government cannot compel obedience if the states stand strong. A trivial but telling example is medical and recreational marijuana laws. Oh sure, there are occasional punishment beatings from the DEA every now and then but those laws still exist, the dope is still flowing, and it’s still technically all illegal under Federal Law.
Screw OCare. Time to give it one of those partial-birth abortions that the DogEater is so keen on.
CorporatePiggy on November 26, 2012 at 11:25 AM
Let me tell you how this is going to go.
HotAir, other conservative sites, and the right-leaning Twittersphere will latch onto any piece of bad news regarding Obamacare. There will be a lot of excitement among readers and followers that THIS TIME the wheels will come off this thing, somehow, some way. Maybe it’s the looming problems with the exchanges. Maybe it’s the GOP governors refusing to play ball. Maybe it’s public backlash to the IPAB (once they realize what it is). Maybe it will be the cost (once it finally becomes known). Maybe it will be the doctor shortage. Etcetera, etcetera.
What will actually happen is that the damn thing will happen anyway, just like it did at the end of 2010/2011, as HotAir and others kept bringing up one supposed death knell after another (remember reconciliation? Bart Stupak? the cornhusker kickback?), only to have the Dems win the g.d. vote in the end.
It will be delayed. It will be bloated and over budget and worse than anyone ever thought. It will continue to be fought every step of the way. But by hook or by crook, the left is going to get their nationalized health care.
Purple Fury on November 26, 2012 at 11:34 AM
This is no “challenge” – Pharaohbama will simply wave his golden scepter, and it will be so.
Pork-Chop on November 26, 2012 at 11:38 AM
The One has zero interest in the nuts and bolts of policy or governing. Just look into how he handled the Gulf oil spill. Hell, he had almost nothing to do with Obamacare. It should rightfull be called Pelosi-care.
This means that the actuall work of building these exchanges will fall to faceless technocrats… Ladies and Gents, welcome to the real life version of the movie Brazil.
Boogeyman on November 26, 2012 at 11:43 AM
You give him way too much credit for setting a table! No way he knows or cares where all those forks and spoons go. That task is delegated to someone else too!
Brat on November 26, 2012 at 11:50 AM
800,000 jobs to be lost, soon, at a minimum.
Only fools will participate. All others will jump in when they need it, just because they can.
Schadenfreude on November 26, 2012 at 11:54 AM
This will solve all your challenges.
Schadenfreude on November 26, 2012 at 11:55 AM
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is a liberal union-funded research outfit that always supports more spending.
rockmom on November 26, 2012 at 11:55 AM
Of course “nobody” anticipated this, because the 10 people who wrote this bill were a bunch of political hacks who wanted to mask the true cost of the bill by foisting the most expensive parts of it onto the states. They were so sure of their cleverness and were working in a closed loop of like-minded people. Nobody ever asked what happens if the states refuse to cooperate, just like Nancy Pelosi was surprised when she was asked if the law was Constitutional.
Just remember, Barack Obama in 2008 promised that this whole thing would be developed and debated live on C-SPAN. This is just one aspect of the final bill that would have never survived such public scrutiny.
rockmom on November 26, 2012 at 12:00 PM
President Barak “It’s not my Fault” Obama doesn’t really care about setting up the exchanges.
He’s got his list of scape-goats ready.
Deafdog on November 26, 2012 at 12:06 PM
Congressional Republicans are worthless. Asking them to do anything is way more aggravation then it’s worth. They’ve stopped doing anything to earn our votes. They’ve written us off and we should return the favor. Pressing the states to refuse this pile of manure is our best chance. State governors need to tell Washington to pound sand, not just on 0bamacare, but the EPA as well.
CurtZHP on November 26, 2012 at 12:16 PM
Speaking of John Roberts, has anyone heard anything from that traitor recently? Wonder if he’s noticed how his little exercise in judicial activism has already costs thousand of people their jobs. Not that he would care anyway.
TxAnn56 on November 26, 2012 at 1:23 PM