State leaders are reportedly planning to be "very, very active" in any gutting of Obamacare.
The National Governors Association in particular is eyeing a more public and aggressive role as GOP leaders try to replace the federal program, The Hill reported.
"Governors will be very, very active and engaged," NGA's health policy director Frederick Isasi told The Hill. "They really are one of the few groups who are, in this very tangible day-to-day way, are living the results of the policies."
The stakes are high; an abrupt repeal of the Affordable Care Act covering 22 million people could have "devastating consequences," Iowa's GOP insurance commissioner Nich Gerhart recently warned.
"The idea of folks having credible coverage today that is no longer there come June or July or some mid-point of the year, it really is going to be disruptive, not only to the insurance market, but also to those peoples' individual lives," Gerhart wrote in an online op-ed piece.
Input from the NGA is likely to carry weight at a table with GOP leaders and the White House, according to The Hill, since governors have to ensure the stability of their healthcare marketplaces.
"It's the health insurers I worry about," Mike Kreidler, the insurance commissioner for Washington state, said recently, The Hill reported. "Nothing mandates that they have to be in the marketplace. And there's enough uncertainty, because of all the talk that's taking place."
"They're talking about repealing in a vacuum: I think that is a guaranteed recipe for absolute uncertainty going forward," he added, The Hill reported.
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