Oklahoma GOP Leaders Gambling On Health Care Decision - NewsOn6.com - Tulsa, OK - News, Weather, Video and Sports - KOTV.com |

State officials in Oklahoma have done little to comply with the new federal health care law and are instead gambling that a key provision will be struck down Thursday by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The move is calculated -- albeit risky -- for Oklahoma's GOP leaders. They cited fears of a federal takeover of health care in declining to set up a state-run health insurance exchange.

Should the law be upheld and the state doesn't create its own exchange by November, the state would automatically be absorbed into the federal system. That's the very thing they're fiercely trying to avoid.

When lawmakers decided to study how the state could set up its own exchange, conservative activists were so relentless in their opposition that the Legislature ultimately decided to do nothing.