Gunn's Comments on Health Insurance Miss the Mark

Speaker Philip Gunn, Tea Party leader

Earlier today, Speaker Philip Gunn (R-Clinton) offered his thoughts about the activation of the health care marketplace established under the Affordable Care Act which goes into effect October 1.

There are so many inaccuracies in his statement it is difficult to know where to begin. If someone were to rewrite it to reflect reality, it would look something like this:

Thanks to my refusal to pass a state-based health insurance plan that Commissioner Mike Chaney and his staff worked on for months, health care premiums are among the highest in the nation. We could have had a solution tailored to Mississippi to fix our health care system, but I was beholden to my tea party base to allow that to happen.

What Gunn refuses to admit is that his own actions during the June special session have resulted in the federal government managing Mississippi's health insurance marketplace. Democrats in the Legislature offered an amendment to establish a state-based exchange, but Gunn and his loyal Tea Party followers in the House defeated it. You can check out the vote for yourself here.

Gunn goes on to say that the law hasn't fulfilled its promises. The thing is: the bill hasn't fully been implemented yet! He's admitting defeat before anything has happened. He makes a point that health insurance premiums will be among the highest in the nation. Commissioner Chaney noted that this is the case because there is no competition among Mississippi's health insurance companies to bring down costs.

Once again, Gunn reminds us that he, Governor Bryant, and their Tea Party colleagues do not care to learn the facts about the law and how their abdication of power to the federal government has us in the position we find ourselves today. If Gunn is truly looking for Mississippi solutions, perhaps he should not be part of the problem.