The Heritage Foundation released a brief examining the impact of the national health care reform law on states.  The brief posits that the law will impose signficant new costs on states' Medicaid programs, and suggests that state lawmakers pass legislation now to protect them from harmful provisions of the law.  The authors suggest that states should assert their own authority and challenge the federal law, rather than assisting in its implementation.

From the report: If implemented as enacted, Obamacare will impose significant new Medicaid costs on states and constitute a major federal usurpation of long-standing state authority in regulating private insurance. This will be expensive and disruptive for those Americans who rely on individual or employer-based insurance for their health insurance. While some of the most expensive and disruptive provisions of the massive legislation do not take effect until 2014, other provisions are already going into effect and state lawmakers need to act right away if they are to implement their own Medicaid and private insurance market reforms to mitigate the harmful effects of Obamacare. State lawmakers must recognize that states are not mere agents of the federal government. They are not powerless, and there is nothing that requires them to assist in implementing this new, misguided federal health care agenda. They should assert their rightful authority, and represent and protect their citizens by resisting the disruptions entailed in Obamacare—taking actions that pressure the next Congress to scrap or redesign this harmful federal legislation.

Full report: Obamacare: Impact on States (PDF | 765 KB) 

Heritage Foundation.  (2010).  Obamacare: impact on states.  Haislmaier, E. and Blase, B.