Published: 10\/7\/2012 9:48 PM | Last update: 10\/7\/2012 10:28 PM Conservatives opt for a wait, see approach while moderate voices dwindle. By John Hanna - Associated Press TOPEKA - An acrimonious debate over the federal health care overhaul is seeping into state capitols, creating fissures among Republicans as the tea party movement reasserts its influence in GOP-controlled areas. <\/p>\n
States face decisions about setting up online health insurance marketplaces, and a mid-November deadline for declaring their intentions has sparked conflicts between governors and legislators across the country. In two GOP strongholds, Kansas and Mississippi, elected insurance commissioners are at odds with governors, even though they're all Republicans. <\/p>\n
Praeger wants the state to have a role in running the online insurance marketplace, known as an exchange, and she said she'll have a plan ready. Gov. Sam Brownback, a longtime critic of the health care law, plans to wait until after the presidential election to set the state's course and is under pressure from fellow conservatives and tea party activists to avoid any state involvement. <\/p>\n
The disagreement with Brownback has political consequences for Praeger, the most prominent of a dwindling number of GOP moderates in state government. Now in the middle of a four-year term, she disclosed in a recent interview that she's all but decided against running again in 2014 and acknowledged she'd have difficulty winning a Republican primary. <\/p>\n
\"My position is really more apolitical, just trying to be a good insurance regulator,\" she said. \"His is more of a political position, and I understand that.\" <\/p>\n
Brownback's office declined requests from The Associated Press for an interview. It pointed to previous statements that if GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney defeats Democratic President Barack Obama, who championed the health care overhaul, states are likely to get a waiver from many of the federal health care law's requirements. <\/p>\n
\"We're operating in a seat of uncertainty,\" said state Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, a conservative Shawnee Republican who argues any involvement in an exchange would make Kansas a \"tool of the federal government.\" <\/p>\n
Exchanges are sometimes described as the health coverage equivalent of websites such as Travelocity. States that aren't setting up their own still can declare by Nov. 16 that they'd like to be partners with the federal government, handling consumer complaints and controlling which companies sell coverage. <\/p>\n
Praeger has sent Brownback a recommendation for minimum requirements for policies sold on the exchange, despite his stance. <\/p>\n
She's also been a part of the national debate, serving as chairwoman of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners committee on health care policy since 2009. She was the group's president in 2008. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Health care highlights cracks in GOP<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Published: 10\/7\/2012 9:48 PM | Last update: 10\/7\/2012 10:28 PM Conservatives opt for a wait, see approach while moderate voices dwindle. Continue reading