Obamacare to Raise health care costs? Or will Walker's Medicaid Avoidance do that instead, even to Veterans?

Republicans have played this game for a long time, and the public has got to start catching on; when GOP policies make things worse, they always blame the Democrats.

Walker’s plans for Medicaid will increase the cost of health care for hospitals, which will in turn, raise insurance costs and close rural hospitals.

Listen up farmers and small town businesses, your conservative buddy in the governor’s mansion is not, and never has been, on your side.

WPR: Hospital executives told the legislature's Joint Finance Committee yesterday that Governor Scott Walker's Medicaid budget would raise costs for businesses and could result in the closure of rural hospitals. Jeremy Normington, the CEO of Moundview Memorial Hospital and clinics in Adams County, says that shift would raise costs dramatically for hospitals like his. "It's no exaggeration for me to say that one of the unintended consequences of these cuts could be the closure of rural hospitals in depressed socio-economic areas."

Reedsburg Area Medical Center President Bob Van Meeteren says that's because those who make just above the poverty level won't be able to afford the out-of-pocket costs of the federal insurance exchange. "Exchanges were never intended to serve the lowest-income populations — those earning between $11,500 and $15,300 per year." … "This cost would be shifted to businesses that purchase private coverage."

Van Meeteren and Normington urged lawmakers to accept federal money so BadgerCare can be offered to individuals who make around $15,280 a year. The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimates that this would extend BadgerCare to an additional 90,000 people and save the state roughly $100 million in the next budget.

Conservative supporters of veterans, with their ribbon magnets and flag pins, are all for short changing changing them now for their ever so precious anti-government belief system.

WPR: Veterans groups are concerned about Governor Scott Walker's proposal to tighten eligibility for the state's Medicaid program, BadgerCare … A total of 1,200 vets; another 500 are spouses would be ineligible for BadgerCare under Governor Walker's proposal.

Active National Guard members, reservists and military retirees have military health insurance but their spouses may not and often turn to BadgerCare. And vets may find that civilian doctors are unwilling to accept the Pentagon health plan known as Tricare. A report by the General Accountability Office shows fewer civilian doctors are accepting Tricare because they are unfamiliar with it, or don't like the reimbursement rate for care.