Walker's Bizarre Health Care Avoidance Plan.

Scott Walker has finally found the right words to spin his refusal to provide Wisconsinites the  affordable health care they need. It’s all spin and all deception. Like any plan, even his own (if he has one), will have its successes and failures. It's kinda how we go through life. 

The WALKER SPIN: Instead of comparing the old systems rising costs, with the savings we'll see due to the Affordable Care Act, Walker wants you to think the improved numbers are the only numbers-where there are still a lot of people seeing rising premiums. He won't tell you how much more it'll cost for more people if we do nothing. Yes, there will be some increases for a few, which may or may not happen, depending on new information and rules yet to be put in place. The high risk pool may or may not be absorbed into ACA. If it is, the fees saved by insurers and providers could be applied to cost reductions...but we don't know yet.

Walker: “The good news is that responsible budgeting has put our state in a fairly unique position: Nearly 91 percent of Wisconsin residents have health insurance.”

That’s because the former Democratic Governor expanded Medicaid’s Badgercare program. That stat won’t last long under Walker and a Republican legislature.

By stressing the supposed, sky is falling negative effects of the Affordable Care Act, Walker’s doom and gloom spin covers up the incredibly good news and better outcomes in that report, written way back in 2009. A lot has changed, and the model in Massachusetts is leading the way with great results.  

An actuarial study commissioned by my predecessor, a Democrat, and completed last year found that if Obamacare is implemented in Wisconsin:

● 100,000 people will be dropped by their employer-sponsored health insurance. ● Approximately 122,000 parents, caretakers and pregnant women with an income of more than 133 percent of the federal poverty level will no longer be eligible for Medicaid.

I'm not sure how he came up with that, especially after reading this section of the report:

Status Quo (Without ACA): Based on the CBO's numbers, we are able to project forward from this 2009 baseline, and establish a 2016 pre-ACA status quo baseline. We focus on 2016 to allow three years for the ACA to phase in; Employer sponsored insurance (ESI) would expand by 8% absence of the ACA. Non-group, or individual, market insurance enrollment would remain steady. The public insurance membership would shrink by 7% (as the economy improves). The ranks of the uninsured would grow by 8%, rising from 480,000 individuals lacking coverage to 520,000 individuals.

With ACA: By 2016, the enacting of the ACA will have had a large impact on insurance coverage in Wisconsin. The expansion of Medicaid will add an additional 170,000 individuals to the public program. The creation of the exchanges will provide a large boost to the Individual Market. At the same time, these provisions will create a modest reduction in ESI. The net of these effects would be a significant decrease in the uninsured population of 340,000 individuals (by 65%). Table 2 below summarizes the 2016 coverage effects of the ACA. 

One big lie:

●150,000 people will stop buying health insurance in the private sector and will instead become dependent on the government and taxpayers;

No, that’s an outright lie. The Affordable Care Act is not “government healthcare,” and uses private insurers, hospitals and doctors, offering affordable and subsidized premiums in the exchanges.  People are no longer forced to work at companies, putting off starting their own, simply to keep their coverage. According to the report:

Wisconsin could wait to understand how the Individual Market Transitional Reinsurance Program would mitigate these increases before committing these funds to the Individual Market.

And then there's always the ideological brilliance of Scott Walker, even after the Supreme Court decision:

The law has also raised serious philosophical questions: Should the federal government force people to buy a product? What is the proper relationship between federal and state governments? Even setting aside those legitimate issues, one practical concern remains. 

Walker loves using language he knows pissed off conservatives, dog whistle politics at its most obvious:

I look at the effects that full implementation would have on my state, and I can’t help but conclude that Obamacare punishes Wisconsin for budgeting responsibly and providing access to affordable and quality health care. It punishes young people!!!!

Increasing access to health care won’t come through mandates, taxes or penalties. Truly improving access for families will require costs to go down. Unfortunately, Obamacare moves in the opposite direction by making insurance more expensive. 

That too is a lie, as demonstrated by the success of the Massachusetts plan, Romney Care, which turned the cost curve way down.