Republicans and Stonewalling Health Care for Ohioians

States have until June 30th to enact an insurance exchange as required by the Affordable Care Act, otherwise the federal government will do it for them. In Ohio, Democrats have been trying to gauge the efforts to implement the exchange, but have been stonewalled by Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor who heads Ohio’s Department of Insurance.

So, Democratic state Rep. John Patrick Carney of Columbus went above Taylor’s head and asked Governor John Kasich to come to the General Assembly and testify on what progress has been made on enacting this federal law. Amazingly, he said this.

I’ve got to think these things through.

What’s there to think about. It’s a law passed by the Congress of The United States of America. Put together a team and implement it.

Instead, Kasich has his Lt.Gov. running around the state criticizing the law and calling it Obamacare. Republicans love calling laws they don’t like things they are not. It’s not Obamacare, it’s the Affordable Care Act. It provides health care for all Americans. In case your wondering, that’s a good thing. Of course, it might affect one of the Republicans core financial contributors, the insurance industry. Think Nationwide who is actually probably not on your side, but on the side of the Republican political rulers in Ohio and the nation.

It’s clear that Kasich and Taylor are making no progress on implementing a lawful act of Congress. That’s why the reluctance to inform the General Assembly on their progress. This should not be surprising since it would not be the first time Ohio Republicans have ignored a law they don’t like.

Tags: Kasich, Mary Taylor, Obamacare, Patrick Carney

This entry was posted on 12/13/2011 at 4:38 am and is filed under State, State Community, State Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.