In 2010 the Business and Industry Association, New Hampshire’s largest business membership group, watched in silence as legislators passed an income tax on owners of limited liability companies. Now the BIA is doing worse: advocating that legislators pave the way for Obamacare, which would be a disaster for businesses.

The BIA, along with several chambers of commerce, is urging the Legislature to pass a bill to create a state health insurance exchange.

“It’s minimally intrusive to the competitive market; it can be disassembled in an orderly fashion” if Obamacare is ruled unconstitutional, said Paula Rogers, government relations director for Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield New Hampshire, which is jointly pushing the bill with the BIA.

First, neither of those is true. The exchange would be run by the state, and to participate insurers would have to leap many obstacles set by Washington, and those could change at the whim of politicians or bureaucrats. And dismantling any government bureaucracy is next to impossible; this one would be no different.

Second, note that the most assertive backers of this legislation are insurance companies and insurance agents (the bill’s prime sponsor sells insurance for a living). While Obamacare would burden most businesses with excessive costs and regulations related to health insurance, one sector makes out just fine: insurers. The law mandates that every single American consume health insurance.

The health insurance exchange these groups want is not, as some misleadingly state, a simple marketplace for the buying and selling of insurance. It is a state bureaucracy. The exchange would be created and run by the state, which would control the market at the direction of Washington. This isn’t an open market; it’s a method by which Washington uses the states to compel insurers to do Washington’s bidding. It is the beginning of the end for a true open marketplace for health insurance.

Regarding health insurance, New Hampshire needs a more open, less-heavily regulated marketplace. The Obamacare “exchange” takes us in precisely the opposite direction.