Pennsylvania is the first state to announce a plan to save people’s ObamaCare support money. The Obama administration is currently reviewing the application from the state, which is requesting to set up its own healthcare exchange on the chance the Supreme Court denies the healthcare law’s subsidies later this month.
Pennsylvania governor Tom Wolf said wants to provide the residents of his state with services by using existing infrastructure like the website and call center. By creating a state-based exchange, nearly 350,000 people will have continued access to subsidies. Though it remains unclear what other costs, if any, the state would take on in creating this exchange, the governor believes it’s “the responsible thing to do.”
Despite his solid belief, Wolf is aware he may have to face a tough fight from his state’s Republican-controlled legislature, who may themselves face pressure from their counterparts in Congress who do not want the creation of exchanges. The GOP’s belief is that creating these exchanges will resuscitate the healthcare law.
A State vs. Federal Fix
Some Republican governors are urging Congress to come up with a federal fix should the Supreme Court void subsidies. Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker believe any fix should be at the federal level, not the state level. Walker has stated in several interviews that he will “ultimately push back” should he be asked to come up with his own state-based plan to prevent potential chaos in the healthcare marketplace.
“This is a problem created by this president and the previous Congress,” Walker said, according to the Washington Post. “It’s something that requires a solution at the federal level. States didn’t create this problem, the federal government did. And they should fix it.”
Florida and Wisconsin are not the only states to rule out a state-based ObamaCare rescue. Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska and South Carolina have also said they would not act on the state-level to restore the subsidies.
A Possible Solution
There are four states that may have stumbled upon a solution. Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Hawaii had all created the legal and technical framework for their own state exchanges and they also still run big aspects of their ObamaCare markets. But, when they couldn’t make their own systems work, they decided to rely on other plans, such as HealthCare.gov. Under the current health law, they qualify as states that adopted ObamaCare, which means they continue receiving subsidies no matter what the Supreme Court decides in King v. Burwell.
Many healthcare experts are seeing this as the best possible solution for other states whose residents are at risk of having their subsidies stripped by the court. By declaring they’ve adopted a core component of ObamaCare, states can preserve their eligibility for subsidies as well as seek the approval to keep using HealthCare.gov for enrollment.
