Jackson Free Press

During a U.S. House of Representatives health-care reform hearing yesterday, Gov. Haley Barbour argued against the law's mandatory requirement for states. President Barack Obama, however, endorsed a bipartisan Senate bill Monday that would allow states to opt out of the current health-care law and design their own plans.

The current health-care law allows states to submit their own plans, but they must wait until 2017. The proposed "Empowering States to Innovate Act" would allow states to submit their plans as soon as 2014 to the federal government. To qualify, states must provide coverage that is as comprehensives as the coverage offered through exchanges; make coverage as affordable as the current Affordable Care Act; provide coverage to the same amount of residents as the current act would have provided; and not increase the federal deficit.