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Title: Gov. Bentley says Alabama won't set up exchange, expand Medicaid Post by: pmull on November 13, 2012, 08:53:43 PM Bentley is not the only Republican governor to balk at Obamacare. Six Republican governors (Texas, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana and Georgia) have said they will not participate.
Quote Gov. Robert Bentley, in a show of continued resistance to the Affordable Care Act, said this afternoon that he will not set up a state health care exchange and he will not expand Medicaid under the federal healthcare overhaul. Quote "That will send a clear signal to all of our elected leaders in Washington that the health care bill should be changed," Bentley said. Bentley questioned the constitutionality of the the federal government stepping in and setting up essentially a state agency through a federally designed exchange. Oklahoma has filed a lawsuit alleging that it is unlawful for the federal government to establish an exchange within a state, Bentley noted. "We believe the federally facilitated system they will try to set up, we believe that is unconstitutional," Bentley said. Bentley said a state study commission had estimated previously that a state exchange would cost up to $50 million annually to operate. He said the state cannot afford that. The commission estimated that the cost to operate an exchange in 2015 would range between $34 million and $49.6 million. http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/11/gov_robert_bentley_alabama_health_care_exchange.html |