Yet another AP headline designed to mislead. While true at the very least it implies that Republicans are actively working to discourage enrollment or make it difficult for applicants to enroll.
On the day consumers start perusing newly launched federal online health exchanges, Republican governors who oppose President Barack Obama's insurance overhaul are mostly sitting on their hands. But the law is going into effect without them.
What the writer fails for several paragraphs to explain is that in these states it is the responsibility of the Federales, not they, to see to it people are enrolled. Their states have declined to participate in the Adorable Health Care Act boondoggle.
A spokesman for Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal dismissed the sweeping law as "a federal issue" and said his boss had no plans to discuss the launch of the exchanges.
State workers in several other GOP-run states were ordered to refer all questions from residents to federal officials. In Oklahoma, state employees were instructed to tell residents they are "not trained or certified to answer questions about the Federal Insurance Marketplace."
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said her state Medicaid agency fielded calls from residents, including some frustrated by error messages because of heavy online traffic at healthcare.gov. She said the agency would try to help, but she was quick to take a swipe at the law and its federal backers.
"Our job is to get the information out there. The feds' job is to make it work. Unfortunately, it's not working," Haley said. "We're going to continue doing what we can, but this is continuing to be the mess we thought it would be."
Note how in OK
state employees were instructed to tell residents
which is an absolute truth so why say, "instructed to tell"? Why not use the word "informed" or its equivalent?
In these states if people have questions and cannot get answers, or don't know where to find them, that is the fault of the Feds and their poor rollout preparation, not the Republican governors. It is quite interesting, though, that a clever writer and editor can make it seem the governors are.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HEALTH_OVERHAUL_RED_STATES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-10-01-17-19-36
