Berger drops the ball on health exchange

Leaving the federal government to create one for us:

The Senate didn’t act on the House bill, with leader Phil Berger deciding to wait to see how the U.S. Supreme Court would rule. Once the court upheld most of the act last month, Berger didn’t take it up in the final days of the legislative session. Now North Carolina is facing a deadline it cannot meet.

There's more to legislating than just stripping away funding for needed services and gutting regulations that protect citizens. You also have to build some things, instead of betting on a longshot horse and then burying your head in the sand when said horse goes lame.

Once the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services takes control of North Carolina’s exchange, the state can apply to wrest control back. But it won’t be able to do that until it does enough work to show that it can take over the program at least a year before it actually does.

A spokesman for Berger’s office said last week there will be “ample opportunities” for North Carolina to establish a state-based program if it decides to go that route.

For the logically-challenged out there, that "if it decides" comment means that Berger is prepared to let the federal government manage our insurance marketplace for an extended period of time. And in answer to Rep. Insko's question:

“I can’t imagine North Carolina wouldn’t choose to do their own,” said Rep. Verla Insko, an Orange County Democrat and retired health program administrator. “As a Southern state, to have the federal government take it over – I would look forward to having a serious conversation about that.”

It's simple, really. Berger is not looking at this as a public servant, who would naturally try to help as many people as possible. He's looking at this as a politician. If he keeps his hands off this process, he's free to rant and rave to Tea Partiers and anti-government Libertarians about federal intervention in state affairs.

And not a single one of those fringe elements will ask the glaringly obvious question: Why didn't you take over the exchange yourself when you had the chance?