King v. Burwell: Both PA & MI Governors are on board for state exchanges, but they'd have to start NOW

The good news is that both Pennsylvania's new Democratic Governor, Tom Wolf, and Michigan's Republican Governor, Rick Snyder, are on-board for setting up state-based exchanges. Wolf seems to be pushing for one for PA regardless of the SCOTUS decision, while Snyder is only interested in doing so if MI has to:

Pennsylvania:

Pennsylvania's newly elected Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf is working with the federal government to set up a state-based insurance exchange, but GOP-controlled state Legislature would need to approve any funding.

Michigan:

Gov. Rick Snyder said Monday he would ask the Republican-controlled Legislature to create a state-run health exchange if a key part of the Affordable Care Act does not survive a legal challenge.

That's great to hear. The bad news is that in both cases, of course, the Republican-controlled state legislature would also have to be on board.

The larger point, however, is that the states should NOT be waiting until the June SCOTUS decision to get the ball rolling, which seems to be what Snyder is saying. An extra 3 months may not sound like much, but it's huge when it comes to pushing legislation through the sausage-making process, as well as on the technological side.

IF the Court does shoot down the King plaintiffs and all is well with HC.gov, then sure, it might all be for nothing...but the legislators can simply say "never mind..." and reverse themselves a few months later.

Then again, as Chief Justice Roberts noted in the oral arguments last week, and as Sahil Kapur expanded on today, even if the SCOTUS does rule for the Government and saves the federal exchange credits, depending on the ruling, a future administration could still pull the plug on them down the road, so it might still be wise to push through state-run exchanges regardless.