New National Governors Association chair

>>> delaware's democratic governor takes over from virginia 's governor when they meet at the end of the week. just as more and more republican governors are boycotting the obama health care plan. joining me is governor markell. welcome. congratulations to you taking on a big job. just today, texas governor rick perry announced that texas will neither participate in the expanded medicaid program, nor set up the health care exchanges required under the obama health care law . so how does that -- how is the health care law going to work, if you can have as many as half of the states boycotting it?

>> well, it's a little bit strange given that it really is now the law of the land , the law of the land is settled, and so what we've been doing in delaware all along is we have been moving forward as though it would become law. it is the law. what we're doing is we're taking a careful look at the expansion of medicaid . the bottom line is that with this law or without the law, the status quo before was absolutely unacceptable. health care was too expensive, not enough people had access, so this law's a good step but a lot of us in the states still have a lot of work to do.

>> do you have any concerns about the medicaid expansion and whether the states , i know initially the federal government picks up the tab, 90% or so but eventually, do you think the states are going to get stuck with this?

>> we're taking a very careful look at it but i have to say, compared to where we are now, the additional reimbursement is certainly a lot higher than where we have been, but we have to understand what the ramifications are should we choose to go ahead with the expansion. but regardless of that, the most important thing i think is that most of the states , all the states , are going to have to figure out a way to start rewarding for quality. moving away from what has become a sick care system, where providers get paid based on how many procedures they do, and moving toward a health care system , where we reward quality and where providers and facilities and the like are actually rewarded for keeping people healthy. that's not really the world we live in these days.

>> we have these jobs numbers on friday and it could not be worse -- i guess it could be worse but it certainly is not going to give a lift to the president's campaign. four months out, even though delaware enjoys a very healthy employment rate , what about these national unemployment rates, 8.2%, the fact that only 80,000 jobs were created, and the drag on the president's campaign going forward.

>> well, the president's the first one to understand that we have lots of work to do. i think we have now had 28 or 29 months in a row of expansion and that's why i have been grateful he's been focusing on some really important things like export promotion, making sure that more businesses in this country have an opportunity to export. he signed a great bill a couple months ago to make it easier for companies to go public, because we find that a lot of jobs are created after a company does go public. i think the move that he announced this morning with respect to the taxes is also an important one. i think he's taking a number of steps all of which are very important. bottom line is we have to do better and he knows that.

>> what is your main goal as the incoming head of the nga?

>> well, these days for so many states , it really continues to be about jobs. we're going to build on the work of the governor of nebraska , who has actually been the chair for the last year. we're having the meeting in virginia but he has been the chair, building on his work around entrepreneurship and the like, and i'll be announcing my own initiative in just a few days, still focused on job creation . the most important thing that all of us in government can do is recognize that it's not our job to create jobs, but it is our job to create a nurturing environment where businesses can be successful. that's very much part of what we're going to continue to do at the national governors association .

>> thank you so much. thanks for the correction. i should have known that, of course, nebraska, the chair, not virginia . but you will be meeting in williamsburg. look forward to seeing you there.