Will GOP governors kill ObamaCare?

President Obama's health law survived the Supreme Court, but some Republican governors who have long opposed ObamaCare say they won't implement any of it

During a news conference June 28, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said his state would not move ahead with implementing the federal health care law, despite the Supreme Court's ruling.
(Image credit: AP Photo/Scott Bauer)

As Democrats celebrate the Supreme Court decision upholding ObamaCare, several Republican governors, including Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Scott Walker of Wisconsin, said they were refusing to implement insurance exchanges that are supposed to put health coverage within reach for more people. On top of that, the Supreme Court ruled that states can opt out of the health-care reform law's proposed expansion of Medicaid without losing the federal money they're already receiving to provide medical care for low-income families under the program. If GOP governors resist, can they gut Obama's health law?

GOP governors can take a big chunk out of ObamaCare: Twenty-six states took the federal government to court to stop it from forcing them to expand Medicaid under ObamaCare, says George Zornick at The Nation. And now, the high court's ruling makes it "easier for rogue Republican governors to exempt their states from participating in the expansion." If all 26 states opt out, 8.5 million of the 16 million additional low-income people who were supposed to get Medicaid coverage under ObamaCare will be left out.

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