Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal Wednesday night announced he would reject legislation that would have set up an Obamacare-compliant health insurance exchange for the state. Deal said he changed his mind about the plan after hearing protests from Tea Party groups in Georgia.
The following statement from Benjamin Domenech, research fellow for health care policy at The Heartland Institute, may be used for attribution. For more comment, contact Domenech at [email protected] or 703/509-1741.
“Georgians should applaud Gov. Nathan Deal for heeding the call to shelve a bill to establish a health insurance exchange in their state. President Obama’s health care law provides only for the kind of exchanges that will pass muster with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius – exchanges that will represent an artificial marketplace constructed to satisfy unelected bureaucrats, not consumers.
“What’s more, given the fact that all parties involved expect a Supreme Court verdict regarding the constitutionality of this law by early next year, states should avoid spending the taxpayers’ money to construct an artificial marketplace that may never be implemented.
“Any exchange that can meet the demands of Obama’s law, receive approval from Sebelius, and implicitly bolster the Department of Justice’s case defending Obamacare is fundamentally an exchange designed to please those in Washington, not in Georgia.”
Benjamin Domenech
Managing Editor, Health Care News
Research Fellow for Health Care Policy
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
703/509-1741
The Heartland Institute is a 27-year-old national nonprofit organization based in Chicago. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site at http://www.heartland.org or call 312/377-4000.
Jim Lakely is the Vice President and Director of Communications of The Heartland Institute.
