Days after HHS notified states they have more time to decide if they'll run a health insurance exchange, one Republican governor offered a reason why his state will defer to a federal option.

 Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, an opponent of the 2010 federal healthcare reform law, said Sunday that a state-based insurance exchange still provides the same stipulations that a federally operated exchange would.

 “In the end, if it's state in name only, we'd rather have the federal government do it as much as it pains us, believing in federalism,” Walker told host Chris Wallace on the television program “Fox News Sunday.” “In the end, it's better they do it and not incur the additional potential cost to taxpayers that a state-run exchange would expose us to.”

 Walker, the newly elected vice chairman of the Republican Governors Association, and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, chairman of the RGA, appeared on the program separately via satellite to address the issues facing the Republican Party. Jindal did not talk about healthcare. Late last week, HHS sent a letter to the Republican Governors Association that extended a Nov. 16 deadline  for states to notify the department if they plan to run a state-based exchange. The states now have until Dec. 14.