GOP states weigh health exchanges even if health law is struck down

Politico reports that some conservatives think that despite their disdain for the health law, a number of Republican-controlled states might want to go forward with health exchanges to help lower the number of uninsured.

Politico: Red States Eye Health Exchanges
Some conservative experts see reason to hope the states that have been fighting the health care reform law could become hotbeds of health policymaking if the Affordable Care Act fails. They say the work many red states have been quietly doing to comply with the law in case they lose in the Supreme Court could be repurposed to create state-based reforms on a more conservative model. Some states, for instance, may look at their own version of Utah's small-business insurance exchange (Feder, 6/14).

Meanwhile, Hawaii is moving ahead with its plans for an exchange -

The Associated Press/Washington Post: Hawaii Governor Decides Intent For State-Based Insurance Exchange Under US Health Care Reform
Gov. Neil Abercrombie says Hawaii is the first state to declare its intent to develop a state-based insurance exchange -; a key component of federal health care overhaul. The Obama Administration's health care reform law calls for states to establish exchanges by 2014. The exchanges are marketplaces where individuals and small businesses may choose from an array of private health coverage plans (6/14).