Tennessee governor Bill Haslam has made a significant and very courageous decision on behalf of the citizens of this great state. On Dec. 10, Governor Haslam notified Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of United States Department of Health and Human Services that Tennessee will not establish a state healthcare exchange in compliance with the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). As you are probably aware there are many valid policy reasons why Tennessee should not have set up a state exchange. For example:
It is a myth that creating a state exchange gives Tennessee more control over their insurance markets. Every exchange whether established by the state or federal government must be approved by federal bureaucrats, empowering them to promulgate any rules necessary to comply with the ever changing intent of Obamacare. Currently less than half of the rules administrating Obamacare have been promulgated.
Obamacare imposes a $2,000 per worker tax on employers that create a state healthcare exchange. It is estimated that that creating a state healthcare exchange in Tennessee will increase taxes by as much as $100 million per year to cover their operating costs. No such tax exists if the federal government establishes the healthcare exchange.
By refusing to cooperate with Obamacare the states can save the federal government tens of billions in additional deficit spending.
By refusing the state exchange option Tennessee now joins 23 other states in demanding that the federal government establish the healthcare exchange. Forcing the federal government to establish the exchange is not just the better of two horrible choices, but it is the decision that fundamentally is based on principle. I believe that the federal governments establish of Obamacare is an accelerated erosion of state sovereignty as established by our Founding Fathers in the 10th Amendment. The biggest cost to be levied on Tennessee and her citizens is the loss of her sovereignty. Like every other state, Tennessee’s sovereignty was deemed so important that it was enshrined as part of the Bill of Rights found in the 10th Amendment.
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
As the battle for whether Tennessee should establish a state healthcare exchange subsides, the battle over whether Tennessee should expand Medicaid or Tenncare begins. Under the Affordable Care Act the states are required to expand their Medicaid roles if they take any additional federal matching dollars. Governor Haslam has indicated that he will need to take $350 million dollars of a $369 million in projected new revenue for 2013/2014. This additional funding is apparently in addition to the expansion of Medicaid or Tenncare currently required by Obamacare.
This is another example of the federal government through Obamacare trying to leverage our own tax dollars in attempt to erode sovereignty of the states embodied in the 10th Amendment. Just as Governor Haslam said no to the federal government on the establishment of state exchanges I hope he shows that same courage in saying no to the federal government on the expansion of Medicaid. It’s time to get Washington D.C. out of Tennessee.
Joe Carr
State Representative District 48
Nashville
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And I actually wondered why Mother Jones magazine voted Tennessee as having the worst state legislature in the nation.
Herb Montgomery
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Why am I surprised that Herb Montgomery gets all of his information from Mother Jones? Who cares where that leftist rag rates the state of Tennessee's legislature.
I am much more impressed by the fact that Standard and Poor gives our state a AA+ financial rating which is the second highest rating possible. Only 12 other states have the higher AAA rating. I don't think people who buy bonds that fund our state's operations really care about Mother Jones.
Douglas Jones (no relation to mother)
North Chattanooga
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Ha. I'd say Mother Jones, or MSNBC for that matter, is no less "Fair and Balanced" than Fox News, where the majority of the Tennessee Legislature receives its marching orders.
Wes Ellis
East Ridge