Gov. Matt Mead
Gov. Matt Mead (R-WY) probably won't be invited to sit at the grown-up table at the next Republican Governors Association conference. That's because he's
said, in public, in front of reporters, that he wants the
King challengers to Obamacare to lose.
Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead said that although he opposes Obamacare, a defeat for the law in court would cause "a lot of turmoil" and leave states like his "scrambling," according to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle.
"If on June 30, if that’s when the case comes down, and they say no more subsidies for federal exchanges … it is going to cause a lot of turmoil," he said at a press conference, as quoted by the paper. "Not just for the state, and for those people, but for the private sector as well."
Mead added: "We will see what the decision is, and if the Supreme Court upholds the federal government’s position, that is one thing. If they don't, I think we will be one of many, many states that will be scrambling, trying find an answer and seeing whether Congress can provide the statutory fix that would be needed."
Wyoming is among the states that is using the federal insurance exchange, and thus would be one of the states that would lose subsidies. It has
over 31,000 people participating in Obamacare. In 2014,
92 percent qualified for a subsidy.
He can't expect Congress to come up with a statutory fix: that's been ruled out. Mead would be challenged to get his Republican legislature to agree to a plan to set up their own exchange, if past experience is a guide. The governor spent months and months working with the federal government to find a Medicaid expansion compromise, eventually devising a plan that the Koch-backed Republican senate killed. The Kochs aren't going to let them do anything to allow the law to work in Wyoming.