Denying Health Care: Think Globally, Act Locally

Hey, Republicans, this isn't funny anymore:

Several Republican-led states at the forefront of the campaign to undermine President Obama’s health-care law have come up with new ways to try to thwart it, refusing to enforce consumer protections, for example, and restricting federally funded workers hired to help people enroll in coverage.

And in at least one state, Missouri, local officials have been barred from doing anything to help put the law into place...

...Under the [new health-care] law, millions of uninsured Americans will be able to shop for health plans and apply for subsidies to buy them, beginning Oct. 1. The policies will take effect in January, when most Americans will be required to have insurance or face a penalty.

Advocates worry that continued resistance by some states could hinder efforts to coax many of the nation’s 50 million uninsured to sign up for coverage.

Let's look straight at this: Republicans on the state level would rather deny new opportunities for health care for the poor and lower middle classes than allow the Democrats on the national level -- read Barack Obama -- from having a political victory. These red-state Republicans take pride, by the way, in their Christian faith. Read the Beatitudes lately?

Let's sample a couple of the red-state approaches:

In the states, much of the activity involves “navigators,” a workforce of tens of thousands of people who will be deployed by the administration to provide in-person or over-the-phone assistance for people signing up for insurance.

More than a dozen states have imposed licensing rules and limits on these helpers, with the encouragement of professional insurance agents and brokers, who lobbied heavily for the restrictions.

In Ohio, for example, navigators won’t be allowed to compare and contrast plans for customers. And in Missouri, which has a Democratic governor but a Republican legislature, they are required to immediately cut off contact with any customers who at some point have talked to a professional broker or agent.

That's right, Republicans have made it illegal to help people get health care. Something they can't do on the national level they are finding ways to do on the local level. Chew on that.

Ohio governor John Kasich: We can't stop Obamacare
 but we can hinder you from getting it.