LANSING – The waiting and the confusion surrounding the creation of a state health exchange that existed before Thursday’s historic ruling on the federal health care law still remains as House Republicans did not have a firm answer for what they would do next.

House Republicans had resisted moving forward on the exchange for months, considering it a vote in support of “Obamacare,” but now that the controversial law has been deemed constitutional, they can either approve a state exchange they have a say in, or allow the federal government to impose its version of an exchange in the state.

Governor Rick Snyder has backed the exchange, saying it makes sense regardless of the survival of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as a way to allow residents to shop for insurance plans.

Not long after the ruling, House Speaker Jase Bolger (R-Marshall) said in a statement he was very upset with the high court’s ruling, but would now begin to work with Governor Rick Snyder to create the exchange.

“Having the state establish a health care exchange is not something we wish to do, but we cannot stand idly by and hand over our citizens’ health care to an overreaching federal bureaucracy,” Mr. Bolger said. “We will focus on putting people first and protecting them from this massive tax increase on Michigan’s working families.”

Attorney General Bill Schuette then told reporters he thought the House should continue to wait, something Snyder has continually objected to doing.

“I think the House of Representatives here in Michigan has done the right thing by not moving forward on any of the other aspects of Obamacare like the health care exchange,” he said at a news conference. “I think it would be wise, it would be best to wait until November because … Romney said he would repeal Obamacare and with that would go the health exchange and these mandates and so I think it would be wiser for policy leaders in this state to wait until November. And that’s the final decision break point on this health care policy.”

Late in the afternoon, Rep. Gail Haines (R-Lake Angelus) told Gongwer News Service she supported the call by Schuette for the House to wait until November to act.

“Let’s put the brakes on, yet again,” said Haines, chair of the House Health Policy Committee. “We have taken a very prudent course up to this point and I see us taking the same course now.”

Her committee held a number of hearings on the creation of the exchange, but then put it on hold, waiting to hear the Supreme Court’s final ruling.

She said there is nothing that says the state has to act so quickly, and it won’t.

“No, we don’t have to,” she said.

Haines said the state needs time to evaluate this “Obamacare tax.”

“It’s a landmark decision based on semantics,” she said, noting it would not have been upheld if the court hadn’t deemed it a tax. “Our goal is to find a system that works for Michigan. We’re not going to allow our citizens healthcare to be confiscated and mismanaged by unelected federal bureaucrats.”

About an hour after Gongwer reported her comments, Haines backtracked. She called back to say her committee is not committed to taking action immediately, or waiting until after November, but would act when the bill was ready.

“We’re going to move forward when the time is right,” she said. “We are going to take a very deliberate approach to it. We’re not driven by anyone’s time frame.”

She said now that the Supreme Court has ruled, she would work with the Senate and the administration to find the best solution that protects Michigan residents.

Sara Wurfel, Snyder’s press secretary, said the governor does not want the Legislature to wait until November, because it will create more uncertainty for the business community and could lead to the federal government imposing its version of an exchange for the state, rather than the state writing its own rules.

“He definitely wants to move forward quickly,” she said.

In November, the Senate passed SB 693 , which would create the state’s health exchange and Snyder wanted the House to get this done before leaving for summer break. But Bolger and top House Republicans insisted on waiting for the Supreme Court’s ruling before acting.

“In anticipation of the Supreme Court upholding the law, Senate Republicans took steps to preserve choice for Michigan health care consumers by passing a state healthcare exchange to provide consumers with a menu of choices to select their private insurance,” the Senate GOP said in a statement. “If Senate Republicans had not moved forward with creating a Michigan specific health exchange, the federal government would have imposed a one-size fits-all bureaucratic scheme upon us.”

Snyder has said the exchange, called the MIHealth Marketplace, would act as a clearinghouse for insurance plans and allow residents to shop for individual health insurance plans online or over the phone.

In a statement, Snyder, said he did not agree with everything in the law, but now the state “must act quickly to avoid an undue burden on Michigan residents and job providers.”

“Working with our legislative leaders to establish the MIHealth Marketplace will allow Michiganders to make decisions regarding what will be covered as opposed to Washington, D.C., making those decisions for us. It will also allow us to draw down federal dollars to assist with the costs of complying with the law,” Snyder wrote.

Ari Adler, Bolger’s spokesperson, said no timeline has been established to vote on the exchange, but said there are things that can go on “in front of, and behind the scenes” in the meantime.

Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing) issued a statement Thursday evening criticizing Haines and Schuette.

“For Attorney General Schuette to encourage the House of Representatives to not do their job and pass a state health exchange shows he’s only interested in his role as Mitt Romney’s campaign advisor rather than his job as the state’s top legal officer. His conduct is disgraceful and completely unbecoming the office of Attorney General,” she said. “Sadly, we now see Representative Gail Haines join the political games by saying she will not allow the health exchange to be voted on prior to the elections in November against the wishes of her own caucus leadership and what’s right for our state. … If they aren’t willing to do the jobs they were elected to do, it’s time for them to step out of the way and let others fulfill their responsibilities.”

Under federal law, the state has to show by next January, that it will be ready to implement the exchange within the next year.

“We think we still have plenty of time to work on this,” Adler said.

Snyder has urged the state to move faster because the undertaking to develop the exchange and make it function properly will be an expensive and time consuming effort, and would be one of the more complex IT projects the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs has ever taken on.

The state previously received just shy of $1 million in federal funds to begin the initial steps of creating an exchange and last year was awarded a $9.8 million federal grant to begin the next step.

But House Republicans were so opposed to anything connected to “Obamacare” they refused to allow the state to spend the federal money related to the exchange.

In December, the House stripped out a provision in a supplemental to allow the state to spend the $9.8 million in federal funds.

Rep. Chuck Moss (R-Birmingham) famously said at the time of his fellow Republican caucus members: “They think it’s Obamacare. They don’t like it. They’d rather be caught sacrificing to Satan than voting for Obamacare.”

In March, during a debate on another supplemental funding bill, Rep. Pete Lund (R-Shelby Township) offered an amendment to include the ability to spend t