Georgia Insurance Commissioner Proudly Explains How He's Screwing Up Obamacare To Help Everyone

Ralph Hudgens, the insurance commissioner for the great state of Georgia, recently bragged to a meeting of Republicans,

“Let me tell you what we’re doing (about ObamaCare)[: ] ... Everything in our power to be an obstructionist.”

Oh, really? Tell us more,  Atlanta Journal-Constitution  columnist Jay Bookman!

After pausing to let applause roll over him, a grinning Hudgens went on to give an example of that obstructionist behavior, this one involving so-called “navigators” who are being hired to guide customers through the process of buying health insurance on marketplaces, or exchanges, set up under the federal program.

“We have passed a law that says that a navigator, which is a position in that exchange, has to be licensed by our Department of Insurance,” Hudgens said. “The ObamaCare law says that we cannot require them to be an insurance agent, so we said fine, we’ll just require them to be a licensed navigator. So we’re going to make up the test, and basically you take the insurance agent test, you erase the name, you write ‘navigator test’ on it.”

Hudgens clearly thought that was a pretty cute way for state officials to obstruct and delay implementation of the program and to ensure that it doesn’t work well for Georgians. Judging from their reaction, his audience thought so too.

Hahaha, that isa good one! Almost as good as those "literacy tests" that black voters in the '60s never managed to pass. Ralph Hudgens, you are such a scamp!

As Bookman suggests, you might almost think that some Republicans are less than confident that the Affordable Care Act is the socialist disaster that their party has been insisting it will be. After all, if its failure truly were inevitable, it wouldn't need any extra ratfucking campaigns on the part of Republican officials, would it?

In other states, Bookman notes, insurance commissioners

have used their authority to try to lower premiums on policies that will be offered through the exchanges. Hudgens’ comments make it clear that he has no interest whatsoever in such actions. If Georgians have to pay higher rates as a result, that is an outcome that apparently he would proudly applaud if it makes ObamaCare more unpopular.

But it's not just higher rates that Georgians will have to worry about -- they may also have a harder time getting coverage at all, so they can continue to enjoy the freedom they now have to go bankrupt or get sick and die without adequate coverage. It's a matter of principle, you see. Obamacare must be stopped to save America, because if it actually works, people might vote for Democrats.

Can't have that, so Republican officials like Ralph Hudgens are doing all they can to make sure they do their jobs as badly as possible, to prove once and for all that government can't solve America's problems. Insurance will remain unaffordable, and they won't care.

[ AJC ]