AJC columnist Jay Bookman reported last month that Georgia Insurance Commissioner Ralph Hudgens told a Floyd County GOP meeting: “Let me tell you what we’re doing” about Obamacare. “Everything in our power to be an obstructionist.”
Since Hudgens is in charge of regulating health insurance in Georgia and partly responsible for implementing the program, wouldn’t it be in his constituents’ best interests for him to try to make it work, even if he thinks it’s a bad idea?
Well, no, as he explained at a Clarke County GOP meeting Monday night. He said it will “destroy the free enterprise system” and is the first step toward socialized, single-payer medicine,.
“I think Obamacare, if it’s fully implemented, the American you and I know and love will be destroyed,” Hudgens said. “Why would I help implement that?”
I’d go through all the arguments, but that’s kind of tedious. Socialized medicine, yadda yadda. Conservative paranoia, yadda yadda. You can read Bookman’s column. Here is a Rand Corp. report and a Kaiser Family Foundation report, if you’re one of the few people who want objective facts, not political rhetoric, about this issue.
Hudgens did try to set the record straight about accusations that he is trying to stymie the “navigators” who will help people select an insurance plan in the exchange. “It’s not the case” that navigators (who cannot be insurance agents, charge commission or make money from insurance companies) will be given the same tests as agents, he said. They will take a separate 10-hour state training course and separate test.
Oh, and attention, fat people: Hudgens thinks you should be paying higher premiums. “I think they ought to (consider obesity) because that’s a big contributor to health care costs.” Which may be the most reasonable thing he said all night.
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