There's a new law in Arizona designed to tell the world just how much the state's lawmakers
hate Obamacare. Any hate to individual Arizonans who will be hurt by this law is merely implied.
Arizona has passed a bizarre new law in which the state effectively promises that if the Supreme Court destroys its health exchange, it won't build a new one, no matter how badly Arizonans are hurting. […]
So if the Supreme Court rules against Obamacare this year, Arizona will arguably have no legal recourse or backup option to build a new marketplace.
On some level, this all a bit of a charade meant to symbolize how opposed the governor and legislature are to Obamacare. To build a state exchange, Arizona would have to pass a law doing so—and that law could simply include the language necessary to repeal this one. Even so, the message here is clear: Arizona's elected officials want to make it as hard as possible for the state to ever do anything to cooperate with Obamacare.
With a legislature willing to pass this law, how likely would it be that they'd reverse themselves, embrace Obamacare, and maintain insurance for the
roughly 155,000 people who have enrolled with subsidies? Not very.
But hey, Arizona legislature, the people of Kansas and Idaho thank you for making our legislatures look a tiny bit less stupid and cruel.