Late last week, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels signed an executive order that directs state agencies “to conditionally establish and operate a state-based healthcare benefit exchange.” Indiana is the latest in a string of states that are both suing the federal government over the Affordable Care Act and preparing to comply with it.
In a statement issued after signing the executive order, Gov. Daniels chided the health reform law for being too costly and complex. But he also acknowledged that it would be in his state’s best interest to begin thinking about a framework, should legal proceedings fail.
“The nation will be best served by the repeal of this expensive and unworkable law, or by its judicial overturn,” he said. “But for now, there seems no alternative but to prepare for the possibility that Indiana will try to operate an exchange of some kind.”
Just in the last week, six other states have joined legal efforts to repeal the ACA: Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Ohio, Wisconsin and Wyoming added to the list of 21 other states suing, or in the process of suing, the federal government over the health care law.
The US House of Representatives successfully passed a bill to repeal the ACA, but Senate Democrats have declared the bill “dead on arrival,” so judicial efforts will continue to be the focus of health reform opponents.
According to the Gov. Daniels’ office, an estimated 1.4 million Hoosiers would use a health insurance exchange, “however, the numbers are likely to increase as businesses and individuals drop their existing health insurance to receive tax credits.”
CivSource has requested comments regarding the accuracy of those estimates, and the likelihood of Indiana businesses and citizens giving up their existing health insurance, from Gov. Daniels’ office.
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