Walker has to keep fixing things he broke, like Health Care.

I was going to "Hulk Smash" Scott Walker's claim that thanks to him, insurance rates will be lower on the ACA exchanges, but then I found a few other wildly important points of interest.

First, Walker is again saving us all from himself and Trump's sabotage of the ACA-ObamaCare. Citizen Action:

Walker’s actions have increased premiums on individual market by at least 17%, and Donald Trump’s sabotage of the ACA has increased premiums by at least 18%.

And Walker's grand 4.2 percent savings in 2019 (a smaller increase)?

A Brookings Institution study estimated that absent federal policies disrupting the marketplaces, premiums would have dropped 4.3 percent nationwide in 2019.

Wow, thanks, Scott Walker.

Tens of thousands more would have health care and tax payers would have an extra $1 billion. That’s if Walker would have expanded BadgerCare," said TJ Helmstetter, Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

This is What Walker Calls Success??? Walker is spending all his time putting out the GOP fires he and Trump have created. Thankfully, you can now send that extra pocket change from Walker's tax cuts to insurers:

1. Minnesota’s premiums are decreasing for 2019; Minn-13% vs Wi-6%.

2. 45% more expensive in Wisconsin in 2018 to 59% more expensive in 2019.

3. $533 per month for premiums in Wisconsin vs. $335 in Minnesota for a 40-year-old purchasing the benchmark plan on their own without a federal tax credit.

Republicans we're Scaring Insurers: It wasn't the ACA so much as it was repeal-and-replace:

Larry Levitt, senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation (said) "There was a repeal-and-replace debate going on. President Trump was out there talking about the law collapsing," Levitt said. Congress and the president ended certain subsidies for low-income Americans. To prepare for that, and for just general chaos, insurers raised rates. But then things turned out to be not as terrible as insurance companies thought ... enrollment stayed remarkably stable this year.

And besides reinsurance...

One reason 2019 premiums will be lower? It has to do with how high they were in 2018. They increased by an average of 36.9 percent for 2018. "These premium decreases are really about returning excess profits," he said.

Here's audio from NPR's Marketplace that explains what happened, and why Walker is just taking credit again, for something that for the most part was happening anyway:

In fact, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, insurance company profits are higher than they were before Obamacare. And now some insurers are returning to markets they'd abandoned.

But all of this goes out the window if Walker, AG Brad Schimel, and Congress get the court decision they worked so hard to get:

Wisconsin is one of the lead states in the lawsuit that argues the ACA should be scrapped because Congress got rid of the penalty for not having insurance when they passed the GOP tax cut bill.

Bumbling AG Schimel can't win 20 state ACA lawsuit based on facts!

Bumbling Brad Schimel is your typical Republican Attorney General, leading the way with "bubble world" talking points that take precedence over real-world facts, especially when it comes to health care:

Schimel is leading a 20-state lawsuit aiming to "undo the harmful effects" of Obamacare, according to the state Department of Justice. Schimel filed the suit in February. If Attorney General Brad Schimel is successful in his lawsuit ... Democratic Attorney General candidate Josh Kaul said “That suit is not in the interest of Wisconsinites. It’s wrong.”

Kaul is right of course. Yet Republican AG Brad Schimel considers it a "harmful effect" covering 195,000 more Wisconsinites with healthcare insurance?

195,000 people gained insurance in Wisconsin between 2013 and 2015, which helped bring the uninsured rate down to 5.7%, from 9.4 percent ... a nearly 40% drop

Kidsforward

First, it's TrumpCare now! TRUMPCARE: The ACA's changes under Trump have forced even deep red states like Wisconsin to spend even more money to try and save it.

Walker, an avowed opponent of Obamacare, signed a bill into law that will position the state to receive $150 million in federal dollars to help shore up its healthcare marketplace ... set up a $200 million reinsurance fund, 75 percent of which would be paid for by the federal government.

Trump Party Republicans created this problem, a problem Schimel is now...criticizing? Well, thanks for the help. You can't make this stuff up:

“Obamacare causes premiums to rise and coverage to fall, forcing Wisconsin and other states to take extreme, costly measures to protect their citizens’ health and pocketbooks.” Schimel said that Obamacare has ... cost the state jobs. 

AG Dummy Can't Stop Digging...:

"Josh Kaul may not have known this since he was living on the East and West Coasts, but prior to Obamacare, Wisconsin had among the lowest rate of uninsured people in the nation because of a vibrant free market and a successful high risk pool that provided options for those with pre-existing and serious medical conditions," he said in an email.

Wisconsin's low uninsured rated was the result of a Democratic policy allowing BadgerCare coverage for everyone up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). Both Walker and Schimel want to take credit for the resulting Wisconsin ranking on coverage. Nope, can't do that. Walker then cut eligibility in half, from 200 percent to 100 percent, leaving those with no discretionary income to buy into the ACA Exchanges.

Wait, Schimel's concept of "successful high-risk pool's" is pure fantasy. Losing $6.9 million in one year is considered a success?

Wisconsin's high-risk pool insured about 21,000 people, with critics saying high prices kept tens or hundreds of thousands of others from accessing it. Those applying for the program had to wait six months before they were allowed into it and a lifetime cap of $2 million. Health Insurance Risk Sharing Plan lost $6.9 million in 2011, roughly a third of which was offset by a federal grant, according to the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau. The same year, programs in the 35 states lost a total of at least $272 million.

The "harmful effects" Schimel trashed Josh Kaul with have numbers and are pictured here, on the left side of the graph. And Schimel is leading a 20 state lawsuit to repeal the ACA with examples like this?

Dumb Ron Johnson on Health Care: "I think it’s probably more of a privilege." And the privileged have health care, as shown below in the light areas. This was what it was like before the Affordable Care Act, the apparent golden age of the uninsured:

Here's the full Johnson quote, where he paraphrases Rand Paul, which is even crazier. Bottom line: Having a right to health care doesn't force doctors into servitude since they'll already have some form of payment system under universal health care. Seriously, does anyone know a doctor who doesn't want to treat patients?  Johnson's take is sick and inhumane, there's no other way to describe it:

“I think it’s probably more of a privilege. Do you consider food a right? Do you consider clothing a right? Do you consider shelter a right? What we have as rights is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Past that point, we have the right to freedom. Past that point everything else is a limited resource that we have to use our opportunities given to us to afford those things.

“Sen. Rand Paul talked about this on the floor of the Senate. He’s a doctor. He said the minute you consider health care a right, well, who’s going to satisfy that right? And those people who have the skills to satisfy that right, what does that make them if they’re forced to provide you with that rightful product or service?”