Colorado GOP stalls application for federal grant to set up health insurance exchange

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http://www.denverpost.com/legislature/ci_19009195

By Tim Hoover
The Denver Post
Posted: 09/30/2011 01:00:00 AM MDT

Republican lawmakers are delaying the state from applying for $22 million in federal funds that would help set up Colorado's health insurance exchange, the virtual marketplace for insurance that is a key tenet of the Affordable Care Act passed by Congress last year.

Republicans say the current application the state has prepared for the federal grant contains language that runs over states' rights. They have also previously questioned proposed six-figure salaries for some of the health insurance exchange's staff.

"We just don't want to have somebody shove stuff down our throats," said Rep. Jim Kerr, R-Littleton, who sits on the Legislative Health Benefit Exchange Implementation Review Committee, a 10-member panel of lawmakers overseeing the creation of the health insurance exchange.

"The way the grant (application) was written, it would obligate us to the federal health care reform law," he said, pointing to language in the grant application that says the state will "conform to federal requirements" in creating the exchange.

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1. What is it with Republicans and shoving stuff down their throats?