Georgia’s elected insurance commissioner says he will not help the Obama Administration implement the first phase of the new federal health care law.
John Oxendine, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, sent a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, declining her request to create a pool of high-risk people to receive federally subsidized health insurance. He is the first state insurance commissioner in the nation to publicly refuse to participate in the program.
In his letter, Oxendine writes, “It is my position as Commissioner of Insurance that I cannot commit the State of Georgia to implement a federal high risk pool program that is part of a broader scheme which I believe the Supreme Court will hold to be unconstitutional, leads to the further expansion of the federal government, undermines the financial security of our nation, and potentially commits the state of Georgia to future financial obligations.”
Oxendine’s letter is in response to Sebelius’s April 30 deadline for states to indicate whether they will participate in the high-risk pool program. The Department of Health and Human Services plans to offer a national backup program to cover residents in states that choose not to adopt their own high-risk pools.
“If Secretary Sebelius wants to create her own high-risk pool and offer it to the citizens of Georgia, that’s well within the purview of the federal government,” Oxendine said. “I can’t prevent that. But I don’t have to go and do it for her.”