Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger has asked Gov. Sam Brownback to help her set requirements for health insurance coverage to be sold through insurance exchanges dictated by law.
If the state fails to act the federal government will do it for Kansas.
Praeger points out the Affordable Health Care Act requires states to set benchmarks for basic health care coverage by the end of September. If they fail to do so, the Department of Health and Human Services will dictate what Kansas will do.
Gov. Brownback once again said he won’t do it.
“My administration will not make any decisions regarding the implementation of Obamacare until after the November election,” he said Tuesday. It was a word-for-word repetition of an earlier statement.
Brownback is willing to forego an opportunity to establish health care insurance guidelines that will work best for Kansans in order to make a partisan point.
It is a perfect example of throwing out the baby with the bath water.
It is true that a Republican victory in November might result in repeal of the health care law, although Mitt Romney has said that he favors retaining part of the reforms and no one can say at this point whether the health insurance exchanges would stay or go under his administration.
The object of the exchanges is to establish an online marketplace where consumers can buy basic health insurance at competitive prices. Insurance companies such as Blue Cross Blue Shield are eager for the state to set up the coverage guidelines so that they can sharpen their pencils and win customers.
To repeat, we’re talking free enterprise here. The exchanges would be a medium through which for-profit insurance companies could compete for business. All the state would do is establish coverage guidelines.
In response to this opportunity to help those who don’t have coverage through their employer or elsewhere obtain adequate coverage at an affordable price, Gov. Brownback baldly states he is more interested in playing politics. How disappointing.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
