Republicans Okay with using Taxpayer money for Expensive Hospital Emergency Care of Uninsured.

The whole argument against a single payer health care system centered around the idea that conservatives didn't want their money going to treat somebody else. Socialism.

Fast forward to today….Sen. Fitzgerald and Rep. Vos are seriously considering sending taxpayer money to hospitals to make up for their losses because Scott Walker turned down Medicaid expansion. We're talking expensive care for the uninsured in emergency rooms. Those are the same uninsured that would have been covered. But ideology first, common sense money management...not so much.

The difficulty for Democrats is to keep up with all the Republican flip flops and contradictory policies. 

jsonline: GOP lawmakers are considering making state payments to some hospitals to help cover the costs of emergency room visits by the uninsured. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said lawmakers are considering making a cash payment to hospitals to help them deal with a possible increase in emergency room visits from the uninsured.

This is so completely opposite anything the Republicans would stand for; why isn't this a bigger story? It’s a horrible way to waste taxpayer money on the most costly treatment. All in an effort to stick to their ideology.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said Assembly Republicans are firmly behind Walker's Medicaid plan and are hopeful that Senate Republicans will coalesce around it. He said legislative leaders are discussing giving additional payments to hospitals with a disproportionate share of indigent patients, but there is no agreement on whether to provide it.

And of course the desperate hospital lobby likes the idea:

The Wisconsin Hospitals Association supports the federal Medicaid expansion. But Eric Borgerding, a lobbyist for the association, said that the extra money from the state could help make up for higher numbers of the uninsured showing up at emergency rooms because of changes in the state's health care system. "I think it's a positive step," Borgerding said.  
Rep. Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee), a member of the Joint Finance Committee taking up the Medicaid proposal Tuesday, said "It just shows that the administration is living in a fantasyland that is going to result in fewer people insured, the state losing nearly $100 million and the hospitals seeing more people in the emergency room," Richards said.

And more taxpayer money paying for expensive emergency room care. Like Robert Kraig from Citizen Action of Wisconsin said:

This would add to the $119 million state price tag in this budget alone for turningdown the federal health care reform dollars. “By conceding that hospitals will be damaged by an increase in uncompensated care, such deal would be an admission that Walker’s plan will cause tens of thousands people throughout Wisconsin to lose health coverage. This has been denied by the Governor and his allies in the Legislature up to now.”