Governor Christie say he is disappointed the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld key parts of President Barack Obama's federal health care overhaul -known as Obamacare.

Governor Chris Christie
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But he did not say if he would try to guide New Jersey to buck two key provisions for states under the federal law: expanding access to Medicaid and setting up a new health insurance exchange.

Speaking last night on the Ask The Governor show, Christie said "we're still trying to figure it out - I mean it is a long and complex opinion - I started to read it myself today...I think it was a screwy opinion - I mean to say that they can't mandate that you buy something but they can give you a tax penalty for not buying it - it seems to me it's the same thing."

When asked whether he'll move ahead with a plan to create a state health insurance exchange that is called for under federal law, Christie replied, "I'm in no hurry to do that - especially because we've got an election 4 months away - let's see what's going to happen...If there's any hard deadlines that New Jersey has to comply with, or be in violation of the law - we'll comply with it - but I don't think you're going to see any of those between now and November...The impact so far is that Obamacare moves on - and now we'll see what happens in the election because I think if Mitt Romney is elected President then there won't be any more Obamacare."

The Governor added that one of the good things that comes out of the decision, "If you're looking for a ray of sunshine on an otherwise cloudy day, is that it does strike down the federal government's ability to hold back Medicaid funding if you don't agree to all the strings attached to it...But the Supreme Court decision is step one in probably what is at least a two step process in this year to see whether Obamacare survives."

 

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