Health law funding creates dilemma for GOP governors

Even as many Republican state executives oppose the health law, many are moving forward in creating state-run exchanges. Meanwhile, the availability of public health funding as a result of the law also is a politically challenging windfall.

The Wall Street Journal: Health Law Puts Governors In Pickle
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, along with a slew of other Republican governors, faces a dilemma: Do they apply for millions of dollars in federal grants by September to begin establishing state-run health insurance exchanges, or let the deadline slide, lose the federal money and risk falling into a federally run exchange? Republican governors are unanimous in their condemnation of President Barack Obama's health care law. But one by one, many of them are moving forward to build state exchanges, which are intended to help people not covered by large-company plans buy private health insurance at subsidized rates (Weisman, 8/26).

Dallas Morning News: Federal Health Care Law Keeps Sending More Money In Texas
The Obamacare money just keeps rolling into Texas, protestations that it's evil seed notwithstanding. On Thursday, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced the nationwide distribution of another $137 million from the Affordable Care Act. Nearly $1 million of the grant funds will flow to Texas, for support of smoking cessation and immunization programs. The move brings to about $80 million the grants Texas has received from the law, which the state's GOP leaders fiercely oppose (Garrett, 8/25).