Put Pennsylvania in the ‘No’ column; Keystone State will not set up exchange

HARRISBURG, Pa. (Dec. 12, 2012) – The list continues to grow.

On Wednesday, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett announced the Keystone State will not create a state-run health insurance exchange under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Corbett cited a lack of answers from the federal government to questions involving the costs, impacts and flexibility of the state-run exchanges.

“Healthcare reform is too important to be achieved through haphazard planning. Pennsylvania taxpayers and businesses deserve more. They deserve informed decision making and a strong plan that responsibly uses taxpayer dollars,” Corbett said in a statement. “Therefore, I have decided not to pursue a state-based health insurance exchange at this time. It would be irresponsible to put Pennsylvanians on the hook for an unknown amount of money to operate a system under rules that have not been fully written.”

The Pennsylvania governor did leave the door open to future cooperation.

“However, we will continue to seek guidance from HHS on the costs, impacts and flexibility involved in the different options for Medicaid expansion.”

Tenth Amendment Center Communications director Mike Maharrey pointed out that the Pennsylvania governor seems to have followed the script written by many other Republican governors, making the decision based on pragmatic reasoning rather than a principled stand against the unconstitutional PPACA. But Maharrey said the governors are at least smart enough to recognize that a state-run exchange doesn’t mean state control over health care.

“I would much rather see these guys take a principled, constitutional stand against Obamacare. It’s not hard. Clearly the Constitution contains no enumerated power giving the feds the authority to run a health care system for the entire United States,” he said. “But when it’s all said and done, doing the right thing for wishy-washy reasons still means the right thing gets done. Nearly half of the states refusing to set up these exchanges creates a real problem for the feds. This isn’t how the PPACA was supposed to work. This is not how they planned on this going down. Now it’s time for states to get more active in blocking implementation of this unconstitutional monstrosity. I believe the states have the power to halt it in its tracks.”

According to statehealthfacts.org, Pennsylvania brings the number of states refusing to set up an exchange to 22. Six states say they will enter into a state-federal partnership with 19 states (including Washington D.C.) opting to go along with the PPACA program and set up state-run exchanges. Four states still remain undecided with the Friday deadline approaching.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell indicated Tuesday that his state will likely default to the feds as well.

“I don’t see that there’s any certainty that running a state-based exchange makes sense,” McDonnell said on the radio show. “I think we’re going to get stuck with the price tag for an exchange with very little state control.”

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For model PPACA nullification legislation, click HERE.

To track health care nullification efforts across the U.S., click HERE.