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GOP governors push Obama for health law details
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09/28/12 02:03 PM ET
The Republican Governors Association (RGA) is pushing President Obama to disclose more details on the implementation of the healthcare law, which the group says will "destroy the private insurance market."
Governors have a large role to play in how the law is implemented. Those in the Republican Party have either refused to move forward or declined to make a decision, citing the possibility that Mitt Romney will take the White House in November and repeal the law.
In a strongly worded letter to Obama, RGA Chairman Gov. Bob McDonnell (Va.) described his group's strong opposition to the Affordable Care Act and demanded more details on its exchanges, insurance subsidies and Medicaid expansion.
"Before making any final policy decisions, government must carefully consider the short and long-term implications of an expanded entitlement program and the consequences of significantly increasing the size of government to manage these programs," he wrote.
Because of the Supreme Court decision, states that choose not to expand their Medicaid programs will not face federal penalties.
Governors also face a choice about how to handle the law's insurance exchanges — they can create their own or leave the task to federal regulators.
McDonnell called deadlines for federally sponsored state exchanges "aggressive" and said that the Department of Health and Human Services should "level with us as the American people" if they cannot be met.
The letter included 27 specific questions, including: "What happens if a state accepts grant money now to build a state exchange, and subsequently determines that a federal exchange may be better? Will the federal government claw back these grant dollars from the states?"
Read McDonnell's letter here.
