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NH is setting up a health insurance exchange for folks who cannot get private health insurance. Seems like a pretty good idea, no? Especially when the entire $600,000 cost for creating the program is being borne by the federal government. That's a win-win where I come from. Once the program is in place, Granite Staters who otherwise are uninsured can start to get access to healthcare with a program we created and we control.
To get the ball rolling the Executive Council has to first accept federal money that will be used to set up the program. Not, god forbid, actually spend money to help people who are struggling. Just accept the money from Washington and set it up. As the insurance commissioner said:
If this [$600K] contract is approved, it does not commit the state in any way to establish a state-based exchange. But it does permit us to minimize federal involvement in our health insurance market. It preserves New Hampshire's options, from my perspective.
Think local control, something NH voters have always been in favor of.
But the O'Brienistas heard the words "healthcare" and "federal" in the same sentence and went berserk. They have been lobbying the all-GOP Executive Council to reject the money. Saint Bettencourt the Frugal said this:
At a time when we are looking at historic budget deficits in Washington and Concord, we need to be more careful with taxpayers' money than to move forward on this contract.
And King O'Brien the Terrible added:
It would be frivolous to spend taxpayer dollars on implementing a law that could very well be thrown out.
So that settles it. Plan withdrawn.
Got that? $600 grand to help the poor get insurance. Frivolous. $75 grand to not look so damn foolish to Joe McQuaid? Priceless.
This is scorched-earth politics at its most destructive.
