LANSING – A fully federally run health care exchange is likely in store for Michigan, the governor’s office said Thursday after the Senate adjourned without voting on a bill that would appropriate $31 million in federal funds to help set up a state-federal partnership on the exchange under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Governor Rick Snyder has said that Thursday was the last day that the Senate could take action on HB 4111 , and now that it has not, spokesperson Kurt Weiss said the state will not only not receive the $31 million, but it must scrounge up about $8.3 million for the information technology needed to host the exchange.

“We are still on the hook for about $8.3 million for the IT needs,” he said. “Regardless, we’re going to have an exchange in Michigan, so we’ll still have to build the infrastructure to connect to the exchange.”

Weiss said it was “disappointing that Michiganders won’t be providing service to Michiganders” as the state was hoping to have a Michigan call center to help with operations. But asked of this point, Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville (R-Monroe) told reporters that he thought the state would hire Michigan workers regardless of whether the state had a stake in the exchange.

But groups like Americans for Prosperity-Michigan applauded the inaction by the Senate.

“This is a resounding victory for anyone who opposes the Washington health care takeover, and a true testament to the power of grassroots activism,” Scott Hagerstrom, state director of the group, said in a statement. “It should also serve as a wake-up call to Republican governors that members of their party will not rubber stamp implementation of the president’s health care takeover.”

Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom was also supportive of the inaction.

“This is a huge victory in the battle against the implementation of Obamacare in Michigan. Implementation of a state exchange would have meant premium increases, patient privacy concerns, penalties for employers, skyrocketing costs for both state and federal taxpayers, and federal control over health care,” Twila Brase, president of the group, said in a statement. “For the other six states that have agreed to a partnership exchange, legislators should take the same step as Michigan.”

Under pressure to assure that Michigan still had a seat at the table in the exchange implementation and operation, the House approved HB 4111 at the end of February. But senators opposed that version of the exchange, Richardville said, especially when Michigan could have had a state-run exchange that the Senate supported last term (the House never took the bill up).

“I don’t think dead is the right word, but at this point in time we’re not moving forward,” Richardville said when asked if the state-federal partnership bill was dead in the chamber. “I’m not going to stop it from being brought up again (after break), but there would have to be a considerable change in the debate right now, because at this point in time we don’t agree with the bill that was sent over here so we’re not going to move on it.”

The majority leader said there were a lot of concerns with the bill, most notably that “the federal government is not prepared to enact what they have kind of forced at us,” he said. “For us to sign up and say ‘we can do it better’ when we don’t even know what all the things are that are going to be required, we’re just not on board with that.”

Of the level of support for the exchange in his chamber, richardville said there were definite nos and yesses, but the bulk were undecided.

“I think the conservative nature of the caucus came out. It was a resounding disapproval,” he said. “That’s not the direction they wanted to go.”

He also said the caucus looked at several different ideas, but that none seemed to “bridge the gap enough” to be supported as a whole.

“I would think that if we’re going to look at a different alternative, it would probably have to come from the administration or House,” he said.

Weiss said given the requirements from the federal government, there really were not any other options at this point. The state-run exchange could not find support, so the governor tried to do a state-federal partnership, he said. And now that that has not found support, the last option is the federally run exchange.

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