Comments about ‘Gov. Herbert warns of 'red lines' Utah won't cross to comply with federal health care law’

One of the sad things about Obamacare is that it's overhauling an entire portion of the economy before individual states had the opportunity to experiment and find solutions that worked for their specific markets and circumstances. I don't wear one-size-fits-all underwear, why should the states be forced into a one-size-fits-all insurance nightmare?

Don't want to comply with federal law? That's fine.

Pay back every dollar in federal aid.

Oh, you can't...?

Pagan,
so you're saying you can buy your way out of complying with federal law?

BTW, Utah is consistently in the bottom 5 states for federal spending per capita - so don't fall for the standard liberal garbage that we are greater leeches on the country than blue states. NO state pays more in taxes than it receives back - that's why we have a deficit! but Utah gets back MUCH LESS than almost every other state. but I see you cannot pass up a chance to slam Utah and its residents because they do not celebrate your lifestyle.

Pagan,
If you took all the money that I pay in federal taxes and gave it to the state to run the programs and not take one penny from the federal government, I bet that we would have far superior programs and money left over.

Obviously, we benefit from the national military and a few other absolutely essential programs that cannot be run at the state level, but all in all, the state could better run most programs, including medical exchanges. That means better service for less money.

The federal government gives money to states so that they can then control what the states do. They say "If you don't play by our rules we will take our money away from you". When a state manages things well enough to not need the federal government then they (the feds) sue, or find some other way to punish the state.

First comes the money, then, after we become dependent on that money, comes the regulations and all the other strings attached with it.

I'd like Gov. Herbert to explain to small business owners why he thinks Avenue H has been a free-market success.

Currently Avenue H is subsidized by $600k a year in state funding--and over the last 4-5 years it has reached a tiny fraction of the small businesses in the state. I know many insurance brokers who consider it ineffective. That's because the insurance they sell on Avenue H costs much more than the regular private market. How can it be really free-market if it's not cheaper than the private market? The only reason they got some people to sign up was because of a temporary loophole in underwriting.
The state's major insurance companies are only involved because it is a political necessity. They want out as soon as they can. And after Obamacare blows everything up in 2014, they are going to leave.