Bobby Jindal’s big blow for states’ rights

By Greg Sargent

As you know, Bobby Jindal has reacted to the Supreme Court decision upholding Obamacare by declaring defiantly that his state won’t be implementing the law.

“We’re not moving forward with the exchanges,” Jindal said. “Instead, we’re going to do everything we can to defeat President Obama, get rid of ObamaCare.”

This has been greeted mostly as states’ rights bluster designed to appeal to a national conservative audience. But it’s also worth noting that in striking this great blow for Louisiana’s rights, he is basically ensuring that the federal government will come in and build the exchange in his state for him — potentially without his input on how best to tailor it to his own constituents.

The Affordable Care Act requires states to have exchanges. A state has several options: It can build the exchange itself, or it can collaborate with the federal government to build it, or it can let the federal government run it. The state has to tell the feds what path it has decided to take by mid-November. If the state does not want to run its own exchange, or collaborate with the feds to run it, the feds will begin setting up the exchange themselves in January.

- more -

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/bobby-jindals-big-blow-for-states-rights/2012/06/29/gJQAm7F9BW_blog.html