Jindal says La. won’t implement Affordable Care Act

The Supreme Court upheld President Barack Obama’s health care law on Thursday, but Gov. Bobby Jindal—who’s considered to be on the short list of Republican vice presidential contenders and has refused to establish a federally mandated health care exchange in Louisiana—today tells reporters he’ll continue to ignore the mandate. “We’re not going to start implementing Obamacare,” says Jindal, who made the remarks during a conference call with Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. “We’re committed to working to elect Gov. Romney to repeal Obamacare.” Under the Affordable Care Act, states must set up a health insurance exchange program by Jan. 1, 2014, and will receive grants from the federal government to implement it. Several Republican governors, including both Jindal and McDonnell, have put off setting up the exchanges in the hope that the law would be repealed or struck down by the court. Now that the law has been upheld, Jindal says he won’t change course and is looking to presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to lead the repeal effort if he takes office in 2013. “Here in Louisiana, we have not applied for the grants, we have not accepted many of these dollars, we’re not implementing the exchanges,” Jindal says. “We don’t think it makes any sense to implement Obamacare in Louisiana. We’re going to do what we can to fight it.” Read the full story here.