Utah Governor Gary Herbert was in Washington on Thursday, where he joined governors of several other states in urging Congress to help stabilize Obamacare’s individual health insurance markets.
Gov. Herbert joined the governors of Colorado, Montana, Massachusetts and Tennessee in advocating for a quick, bipartisan fix to rising health care costs.
Herbert criticized what he called a “one-size-fits-all” mentality of Congress when it comes to fixing the health care system, and urged the senate committee to hand control over insurance markets to the states.
“I believe if you will empower the states to determine their own health care destiny, the states will innovate and create practical solutions to the most complex health care issues of the day,” Herbert said.
“We will learn from each other, and therefore we will improve,” he said.
Herbert also advocated for doing away with the health insurance mandate in favor of incentives.
All five governors urged Congress to fund cost-sharing reductions through at least 2018. Those subsidies are paid by the federal government to keep out-of-pocket costs low for some Obamacare patients.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Lamar Alexander, a Republican from Tennessee, said during the hearing that he wants to craft a short legislative health care fix before focusing on a longer-term plan.
