“The Law of the Land”

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Like it or not, the Affordable Care Act is now law. Barring full repeal or a court finding that it’s unconstitutional – impossible in the near term and fairly unlikely in the long term – there’s not much those opposed to the law can do to resist it.

But yet, some of the people who may be in charge of enforcing the law are telling voters they can turn back time. Health insurers that operate within state borders are regulated by state insurance commissioners – a post that’s elected in 11 states. In my latest Time.com story, I take a look at candidates running in a few Republican primaries on platforms opposing “Obamacare.” Their anti-health reform rhetoric may strike a chord with voters, but as I point out, if elected to serve as insurance commissioners, these regulators will have no choice but to force insurers to follow new rules put in place by the health reform law. They admitted as much to me in interviews, but you won’t see this fact in their campaign literature or web sites.