The growing ideological rift in the Kansas Republican Party has engulfed the implementation of the federal health care reform law, leaving the future of the state's role in Obama's health care reform program hanging in the balance.
Conservative Republicans in the Kansas House of Representatives are leading an effort to defund the state's share of the implementation of a health care exchange, saying that the state should not be taking any action to implement the law until after the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the case later this year. The move -- which the state's moderate Republican insurance commissioner is objecting to -- is being done in accordance with a resolution adopted by the Kansas Republican Party last year.
"It is the GOP's intent to say 'no more,'" said state Rep. Pete DeGraaf (R-Mulvane). "Until [health care] gets decided, the Republicans in Kansas have strongly spoken."
DeGraaf said he and other House Republicans want Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger to stop implementing the health care exchange, a component of the health law that requires states to create programs and websites to allow for consumers to compare and contrast health insurance plans. Praeger has sought to create the program, saying that the law's passage by Congress and President Obama binds her to start working on the state exchange until the court makes a ruling. A Supreme Court ruling is not expected until late June.
"We are telling her to cease and desist," DeGraaf said.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/16/health-care-reform-kansas-republicans_n_1282450.html
Hat tip: Huffington Post/ John Celock
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