Louisiana Pushes Back on ObamaCare, but Michigan Takes the Money

Yesterday, we reported that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal had joined his colleagues in Florida and Georgia in rejecting the ObamaCare mandate that states create a heavily-regulated health insurance "exchange." Further Bayou State progress was reported in Politico's PULSE this morning:

IS LOUISIANA THE NEXT FLORIDA?  It's starting to look that way as Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration starts aggressively pushing back on implementation. The day after his office broke the news to PULSE that it would not build a health exchange, Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Bruce Greenstein returned his $1 million exchange planning grant to the federal government.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune scoops: "Greenstein said the federal government has been slow in providing guidance on what the exchanges should look like, and what coverage the participating insurers would have to provide. He added that insurance premiums are likely to rise under the new law, and he does not want state regulators or Gov. Bobby Jindal to be blamed if that occurred."

Unfortunately, Michigan has already taken its share of this same loot, $999,772 worth. Whether our Department of Community Health bureaucrats have spent it already is not known at this time.