[9YearLurker]

What are you talking about? There was never any need or reason for government at any level to provide an artificial “marketplace”. The public sector is quite a bit more capable of selling insurance over the Internet than the government is anyway.

Should there be subsidies provided on some level of government for certain, compliant policies? I don’t think so, but even if there were, they could just as well be provided through tax credit as through some sort of government “exchange” monopoly.

[ilgipper]

States already regulate insurance. Simply offering some sort of option for lower income is far superior than shuttling everyone into a crappy Medicaid program. I agree, in a perfect world it would be 100% free market, but healthcare is far from free market, well before Obamacare. If states want to offer some sort of regulated option to reach those that do not find a plan on their own, I don't see a problem with that. If the free market offers a better option, people can independently choose to go there.