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The Oklahoman Archives

A legislative committee says Oklahoma needs to create a state-based, free-market health insurance exchange in order to keep the feds from coming in and imposing their own exchange on the state. This recommendation, although it makes sense, was hardly a surprise. There is no support in the Republican-controlled Legislature for the edicts included in President Obama’s health care law. Health exchanges were among them. These web-based exchanges are designed to give consumers one place to shop for insurance. The federal government provided Oklahoma with a $54.6 million grant last year to establish an exchange. The state sent it back after protests from Republicans and conservatives. The committee’s report didn’t estimate how much an Oklahoma exchange would cost or how it would be paid for. So there is much work ahead. But signaling to the administration that we’re working on an exchange is a step in the right direction. Obamacare is a disaster but it’s also the law of the land for now, and states are obliged to follow it.