The Governor of Alabama says he will let the federal government set up a exchange in his state to provide insurance under the Affordable Health Care Act.
Georgia's governor says the state will go it.
Tennessee's Governor Bill Haslam is still mulling it over.
Thousands of uninsured people in the tri-state are depending on the Affordable Health Care law to help them deal with their health issues.
DR. VERONICA GUNN, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, TENNESSEE, 11-05-10 "We can't afford to continue doing what we're currently doing...which is, experiencing populations with more and more chronic and serious illness as well as higher cost of medical care."
The idea is to spread the cost to every citizen by requiring them to buy the policy and even helping those who can't afford it with a federal subsidy. Regardless of whether the State or the the Federal government runs the exchange, it likely will not run efficiently at first.
The senate will take up the issue in January.
SEN. BO WATSON, CHATT., SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE "The bill has within itself contradictions, it has aspects to it that obviously have not been well thought out in terms of not whether it's a good idea, but how do you execute the idea."
If the Federal Government runs the exchange in Tennessee, it will pay the cost. If Tennessee runs, the cost will be 70-million dollars. But, even then, there are nagging questions.
SEN. BO WATSON "The reality is that this law does nothing to address the fundamental problems that is plaguing health care..and that is its rate of growth and cost."
State legislators also wonder if the health system can take the strain.
SEN. BO WATSON "OK, we've now given you this coverage, where do you go to get it? You're talking about 40 to 50 million people across this country being inserted into the health care system, guarenteed coverage for the essential health benefits..with no capacity in our health care system to treat all those people."
The legislature will deal with problems like that as it seeks to bring Tennessee on-board before the law becomes effective in 2014.
The "exchange" is an on-line web site where citizens will have the option of purchasing one of four policies.
There are still questions about whether you can easily change to another one, or drop it depending on your employment status.
