E-mails Detail ObamaCare, Exchanges Debate
Records reveal debate leading to rejection of health insurance exchange by Gov. Mary Fallin
By WAYNE GREENE World Senior Writer & JARREL WADE World Staff Writer on Apr 6, 2013
Details of Gov. Mary Fallin’s decisions to accept and then reject a $54.6 million federal grant to build a state health-insurance exchange – the most embarrassing political setback of her first year in office – are made public in records obtained by the Tulsa World.
On March 29, under pressure from the World and several other media outlets, Fallin released 51,029 pages of electronic public records concerning her policy considerations about the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare.”
The records show how Fallin and her top aides struggled in 2011 to keep Republican legislators and other supporters unified on the exchange issue and finally had to surrender under pressure from grass-roots conservatives.
The state’s application for the grant was written when Democrat Brad Henry was governor. Soon after Fallin, a Republican, came into office, she learned of the $54.6 million award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.