Rep. Glen Casada, R-Franklin, is center in this file photo.NASHVILLE – Republican lawmakers are building support for a plan to wait until the end of the year to take action on state requirements set by President Barack Obama’s federal health care law.
House Speaker Beth Harwell said Thursday that it would make sense to allow legal and political challenges to the federal health care law to play out before addressing how or whether to set up a state health insurance exchange.
“I think that’s prudent,” said Harwell, R-Nashville. “It is a wise course of action to wait, and if we have to take action as a state, come back into special session.”
Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey first floated the idea of a post-election special session on health care in a speech to a Nashville business group in December.
Republican Gov. Bill Haslam has warned that failure to establish a state exchange by the beginning of next year would lead the federal government to create one for Tennessee.