Two governors go 'all in' with health law's trials and tribulations

In a pair of stories, Politico takes a look at how decisions made by governors in two very different states are playing.

Politico: Nevada's Republican Governor Is 'All In'
In a Republican party that's gone all out against Obamacare, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval went all in. Sandoval is the only Republican governor whose state is both running its own health insurance exchange this year and expanding its Medicaid program under the health law. ... in fully implementing Obamacare, Sandoval faces a double-edged sword: He's helping bring health care coverage to a state with the second highest uninsured rate in the country, while he may be hurting his national ambitions because he's not actively blocking the president's law (Haberkorn, 12/7).

Politico: Kentucky's Unlikely Health Care Heartthrob
As the only governor of a Southern state who has both set up a state insurance exchange and green-lighted an expansion of the Medicaid program, [Steve] Beshear represents a painfully rare bright spot in the landscape of Obamacare implementation. The state exchange, dubbed Kynect, has been a model of smooth enrollment compared with the federal government's version, and has absorbed 550,000 Web visitors and 180,000 phone inquiries so far. The final verdict on the program -; nationally and on the state level -; is far from decided, but Beshear says his mind is entirely made up on both the merits and the politics of health care (Burns, 12/7).