Otter says barring time extension from feds, Idaho’s out of time for state insurance exchange

Idaho Gov. Butch Otter told the Idaho Press Club today that he’s all but given up on establishing a state-based health insurance exchange, unless the federal government gives Idaho more time. “Quite frankly, the clock is running - I don’t know that we’ve got time to put together a state exchange,” Otter told the Idaho Press Club this morning. The state needs “at a minimum a year,” he said. And, he said, “January of 2013 is our drop-dead date of getting acceptance of a state-based exchange design.”

With the U.S. Supreme Court arguments pending this spring and a decision coming in summer on constitutionality of the individual mandate and the national health care reform law as a whole, followed by elections in November that could then change things again, Otter said there’s too much uncertainty.

“What we’re going to have is one that, if it stays in place, if nothing changes in November, we’ll have a federally imposed exchange in the state,” Otter said. That’s not his preference, Otter said. “I think I’ve made my thoughts pretty well known on that. I don’t like the Affordable Health Care Act. … I can hope that my candidate for the president wins, because he’s one of the ones that’s said Obamcare is going right out the window if he’s the president.” Otter has endorsed Mitt Romney for president. Said Otter,  “There’s not a lot you can do in that environment without wasting a lot of assets.”