Friday, May 11, 2012

ObamneyCare© News Update

Add another to the roster of states taking a pass on setting up an ObamneyCare© Exchange:

"New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ...  a bill that would create a health insurance exchange, or Web-based insurance marketplace, in his state."

New Jersey joins Alabama on the roster of states choosing to roll the dice.

Cato's Michael Cannon has an interesting take on this:

"Even if you support ObamaCare, there’s no point in creating an exchange today when the Supreme Court could strike down the entire law as soon as next month ... But even if the Supremes uphold ObamaCare, there is no valid reason to create one of these things."

Michael cites the billions of dollars in state revenues that would have to be shunted from useful programs to fund Exchanges, as well as the inevitable tax increases necessary to sustain them.

And there's this: the (unfunded) Employer Mandate penalizes companies that choose not to offer government-approved health insurance plans. But, as Michael notes, there's a nice little loophole:

"[T]hat tax is only enforceable if a state creates an exchange itself. It disappears in states that don’t create exchanges."

That is, there's a real disincentive for any of the 58 states to actually put an Exchange in place.

Guess we had to pass the bill to learn what's not in it.

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