States continue stand-off with health law -- or push forward

State leaders continue their grapple with how -- and if at all -- to implement the health care law, even after the Supreme Court upheld it.

Des Moines Register: Wide Gulf Divides Dems, GOP On Health Care Reform
When it comes to the health care law known as Obamacare and its implementation, Democrats and Republicans are just talking past one another. Case in point: dueling Capitol press conferences this morning from Iowa state Sen. Jack Hatch, a leading Democrat on health care issues, and Gov. Terry Branstad, the state's top Republican (Noble, 7/9).

The Associated Press/Boston Globe: Maine Governor Backs Away From 'Gestapo' Comment
After causing a furor by comparing the IRS to the Gestapo, Governor Paul LePage backed away from the remark Monday, saying he did not mean to offend the Jewish community or to minimize the Holocaust while attacking President Obama's health care overhaul. The Republican governor made the comment in his weekend radio address as he assailed the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld the health care law, saying the decision "made America less free" and gave Americans no choice but to buy health insurance or "pay the new Gestapo, the IRS" (Sharp, 7/10).

Kansas Health Institute: Kansas Health Providers Move Forward With Changes, With Or Without ACA
Republicans are working still to repeal it, but even before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Affordable Care Act was constitutional, many of its major changes were under way for Kansas hospitals, doctors and other medical providers. In fact, some representatives of doctor and hospital groups in Kansas and nationally say that many key requirements of the law were inevitable or bound to happen with or without the law, simply because the status quo of the health care industry was unsustainable because of its costs (7/9).