Home  >  Nebraska  >  NE: Governor plans series of meetings on health care exchanges

NE: Governor plans series of meetings on health care exchanges

By   /   August 15, 2012  /   8 Comments

By Deena Winter | Nebraska Watchdog

LINCOLN — Gov. Dave Heineman on Wednesday announced a series of informal meetings the state will hold on whether and how to set up a health insurance exchange, as required by President Obama’s health care overhaul.

Gov. Dave Heineman announced a series of meetings across the state to discuss how and whether the state should set up health care exchanges.

Heineman is among several governors who have been less than enthusiastic about the exchanges and other provisions of the law, known as Obamacare.

Even though he’s setting up eight statewide meetings, the governor said the November presidential election could negate everything, when control of the presidency and Congress is determined.

The deadline for states to submit plans for running the exchanges is just 10 days after the election.The health care exchanges are online marketplaces where people can buy private insurance plans subsidized by the federal government.

The governor has invited a variety of groups to participate in a Nov. 4 meeting, including AARP, Americans for Prosperity, Nebraska Appleseed and Voices for Children. He said he asked them to come prepared to say which kind of health care exchange they prefer and how they’d fund it.

Some Democrats have criticized Heineman for meeting behind closed doors with special interest groups about health care reform.

“We’re trying to keep the process very open, very public,” the governor said Wednesday in announcing the meetings.

He chided his critics — such as State Sen. Jeremy Nordquist of Omaha – for not prioritizing their bills on exchanges last session. However, the governor also encouraged lawmakers to wait on legislation to see how the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on a lawsuit challenging the law’s constitutionality.

“They could’ve acted; they chose not to,” Heineman said.

Nordquist said he introduced his bill (which would create an advisory committee to make recommendations for implementing the federal law) on the first day of the legislative session, but it wasn’t scheduled for a public hearing until after the deadline for prioritizing bills.

“I don’t know how intentional that was,” he said. “I thought it would’ve been pretty irresponsible to prioritize a bill that hadn’t had a hearing.”

Nordquist said he was glad to see the governor schedule the public meetings, but it’s important that decisions about how to proceed are made in a public manner.

The senator sent the governor a letter Tuesday asking him to work with him on increasing transparency on health care costs, and said he intends to again introduce legislation to that end if he is re-elected in November.

Heineman also has been critical of the Obama administration’s lack of answers to many questions, and said even a state-led exchange basically only allows the state to decide “who gets to be taxed and how much.”

Contact Deena Winter at deena@nebraskawatchdog.org

Editor’s note: to subscribe to News Updates from Nebraska Watchdog at no cost, click here.

Please, feel free to "steal our stuff"! Just remember to credit Watchdog.org. Find out more

Deena Winter

  • Biff

    First, the law is not ‘Obamacare.’ It is the Affordable Care Act. Second, the November election won’t negate anything. It will take action by Congress. Tell Gov. Dave not to get his hopes too high….

  • Bryan

    Biff,

    Actually the November election is likely to change EVERYTHING!!! Thanks to the SCOTUS ruling defining obamacare’s fine as a tax making it possible to repeal the entire bill with through the reconciliation process with a simple majority of Romney and 51 votes in the Senate, avoiding filibuster. 60 Senators are no longer necessary.

    The only thing standing in the way now is early implementation of obamacare through state exchanges which it appears Governor Heineman is smart enough to avoid. I would say it is highly likely this largest tax increase in the history of the world will be negated!

  • Dave

    After watching club Romney on the campaign trail, I’m begining to think they could do better with Sara “Bat S**t Crazy” Palin running for president. Another one of our govs. heros. Check his shoes near election time–I’ll bet you’ll be able to see his toes sticking out, he is draging his feet so hard!

  • Jazzee

    Bryan: I’m with you I don’t want anything to do with obamacare -major TAX hike and no one read it (I bet barry obama doesn’t know what’s in it) so we are now all stuck with except obama and congress? No thanks throw it out and start over doing things slowly not a 2800 page piece of garbage

  • Watching_From_Lincoln

    “They could’ve acted; they chose not to,” Heineman said. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! Old Do Nothing Dave directs the Republican Caucus in the supposedly “non-partisan” Unicameral to do everything it can to delay any bills addressing the exchanges, takes EVERY opportunity to further delay acting, and is now betting on the long shot of the Romney-Ryan ticket actually winning. Come the day after the election, Do Nothing Dave will be standing there with his pants around his ankles, no State Exchange in place, and his worst nightmare come true – the Federal Government setting up and running the insurance exchange instead of the State of Nebraska – a “States Rights” nightmare come true for all you right knee jerks out there, brought to you by your incompetent implementer of ideological idiocy, Do Nothing Dave HeineyMan!

  • Pat Boyle

    Super PAC American’s for Prosperity has a say in Nebraska healthcare? The healthcare act started because insurance cost are out of control. Calling it a tax is only playing semantics and doesn’t solve the issue. The GOP hasn’t and won’t try help small business and families with skyrocketing insurance costs. Insurance companies LIKE the plan. It means more customers, a larger pool and cost go down. More Americans have health insurance and everyone pays less. Problem solved.

  • Bryan

    WFL…you are wrong. obama knows the law can’t be enacted on a federal level. He needs that state’s help in implementation. That is why all the threats and bribes. Truth is, because of a flaw when the law was written, there is no funding for implementation from a federal level. Only at the state level. If the states’s refuse, the funds for implementation aren’t there. In addtion, it saves business owners $$$ as the fine for not providing insurance is not triggered without state implementation. Lastly, there really is no significant advantage to state implementation as we have a strict outline to follow. Why pay for it ourselves and bankrupt our state and hurt our business owners when the only advantage would be choosing the font it is printed in? The Governor delayed legislation because he is a brilliant man. He recognized obama’s predicament and fall for the threats and bribes. obamacare will fall, and we will all be able to go back and take the time to make true and effective change. Change that doesn’t lead to increased premiums, decreased coverage, and an exodus of doctors!

  • CAllenDoudna

    It is my understanding Obamacare will force Nebraska to choose between funding for Education and funding for Obamacare. First of all let me say that although there are a number of criticisms that can be made of Public Schools (My nephew’s daughter wiped her nose on her cheek creating a red mark that brought an allegation of child abuse and his son was jumping around and fell on his crotch on a pole and this brought an allegation of sexual molestation and a stern warning from the police that any further allegations of misconduct and the children would be removed from the home.) Nevertheless Nebraska has excellent Public Schools.
    But given that cuts MUST be made we could eliminate k-4. K-4 is not about education it’s about daycare. A 10-year-old can pick up those 5 years in the first 5 months of what we now call 5th Grade and our children would suffer no harm. (They’ll probably learn most of that stuff from their parents, from the lady down the street, and from older kids lording it over them by playing school.)
    I thouroughly enjoyed High School, but quite honestly it was covered fairly well in 7th and 8th and I learned no practical job skills. We could replace High School with two years of two-month introductory courses in each of the Vo-Tech fields so by 16 they will have a good idea where their tallents lie.
    Given that we MUST make cuts to Education we could pare Public Schools down to just Middle School with some introduction in the Vo-Tech fields and our children will not suffer.