Friday, February 15, 2013

No means...."No"

Since North Carolina has officially put the kibosh on both a state-run ObamaExchange and Medicaid expansion, some folks are wondering "why?"

Something that gets short-shrift in the media is that, in addition to forfeiting tax-payer subsidies, states with Federally-run Exchanges also get to avoid the employer mandates.

But it gets better:

"Justice John Roberts deemed the taxes levied for noncompliance to be too low to constitute a real mandate. They are simply taxes – and in many cases they apply only when employees are eligible for federal tax credits"

But Henry, we already know this; so what?

Here's what:

"If tax credits are disallowed under federal exchanges, such taxes are no longer applicable. Oklahoma and other states are currently suing the federal government to enforce these terms of the Affordable Care Act."

North Carolina Gov McCrory seems to be playing a game of poker here: if Oklahoma's lawsuit is successful, his state can piggyback onto that. If not, well, there's little downside for his state's employers, and economy. And, of course, he can always revisit the idea of setting up a state-run Exchange.

Win-win-win.

[Hat Tip: FoIB Jeff M]

No comments:

Post a Comment