Utah state lawmaker states objections to health reform opt out

Clark raised four issues:

• it’s unrealistic that the federal Department of Health and Human Services will approve waivers for alternatives of which it disapproves;
• the HHS Secretary gets to determine whether a state alternative is “at least as comprehensive” as the federal law, which could go beyond simply offering health plans that have the same actuarial value as the federal requirement; 
• the Wyden-Brown bill doesn’t cover the Children’s Health Insurance Program and the vast expansion of Medicaid; and
• the number of people that will be covered under the law and its promised level of affordability are theoretical and so should not be used as a benchmark to evaluate state alternatives.

Other witnesses at the hearing praised the law’s flexibility, however. 

Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger, for example, thanked the law’s drafters for maintaining state regulation over health insurance and “states’ crucial role in implementing this law.”