There’s a lot of important outreach that needs to happen before January 1, 2014, and it’s going to be extremely difficult to do that when you have state leaders standing there saying, ‘Over our dead bodies.’ 

David Blatt, director of a state policy think tank in Oklahoma, where both political leaders and residents are skeptical of the federal government and the health-care reform law's insurance mandate. Jan. 1, 2014, marks the day when most Americans will be required to have health coverage.