Not an endorsement mind you—just saying that CJ editor Rick Henderson provides at least one compelling reason— the governor and General Assembly Republicans took a lot of heat but in the end made the right call by keeping North Carolina out of the Obamacare disaster:
Residents in many states with homegrown exchanges are in worse shape than North Carolinians, making McCrory and the legislative leaders who refused to establish a state exchange not only prescient but also prudent stewards of taxpayers’ money.
Nearly half of the states (23) have established Obamacare exchanges, and more than two-thirds of those exchanges are bankrupt, with the other seven in danger of failing. The bankrupt state-based exchanges received more than $1.7 billion in federal startup loans that never will be repaid. Nearly 1 million Americans who purchased policies on their state’s exchange had to find new plans or go without coverage.
McCrory and conservative legislative leaders did not follow the pack and establish a state exchange — a wise move given the many failures of Obamacare that Cooper refuses to acknowledge.
….Setting up a North Carolina-based exchange would not have guaranteed lower rates or greater competition. More likely, it would have given a false promise of affordable health care as it squandered tax dollars and eventually left even more North Carolinians scrambling for insurance coverage that was beyond their means.
In my opinion McCrory also nailed Cooper on HB 972–the law requiring a district court order to release police video footage. McCrory said it made more sense to put this decision in the hands of an imparital judge instead of politicians—the recent controversy in Greensboro is a good example of that point of view. I expected the state’s chief law enforcement officer to have a more detailed response, but instead Attorney General Roy Cooper only offered up broad generalizations about transparency.
