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.

People living in Rural Northern Wisconsin most affected by Affordable Care Act Subsidy Loss, but will they blame Walker?

Republicans have been attacking rural businesses and farmers for years, but their latest moves against the Affordable Care Act is especially difficult. Here's just one reminder of how bad Republicans have made it for farmers.

Wheeler Report (link is gone) Aug. 2013: Lawmakers Call for Repeal of New Wisconsin Death Tax: New law threatens financial security of family farmers and creates potential marriage penalty for seniors.

The state budget signed a month ago included several important changes to the laws giving the state power to collect money and property from families whose loved ones received Medicaid services when they were alive, including the power to file foreclosures on properties. The law changes received no public hearings. Wisconsin attorneys say changes may also prevent farming families from passing their farm onto the next generation should the parents need long-term care in the future.

Nice huh? Add killing the Affordable Care Act to the list of sticking it to rural folks who already think government doesn't help them. State Journal:

True!!!

If the U.S. Supreme Court throws out government subsidies for Americans who get health insurance through a federal exchange, Wisconsin’s rural north could be the state’s most affected region, a new report says.

Door, Iron, Oneida, Vilas and other northern counties have the state’s highest percentage of residents enrolled in the Affordable Care Act’s federal exchange, for which subsidies could be overturned by a Supreme Court, said a report issued Wednesday by the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families.

Of the state’s 183,155 residents who get insurance on the exchange, 166,142 — 90.7 percent — receive subsidies, compared to the national average of 85 percent. The average subsidy in Wisconsin is $315 a month, compared to the national average of $272.

About 14,000 people in Dane County, or roughly 3 percent of the county’s population, signed up for coverage ... other southern Wisconsin counties is 5 percent or less. But in northern counties, participation ranges from 6 percent to 11 percent ... “Losing the marketplace subsidies would push many people in northern Wisconsin back into uninsured status,” Reba Rice, CEO of Iron River-based NorthLakes Community Clinic, said in a statement.

Walker administration Doubles Down on Taxpayer supported Subsidies for Junk Health Insurance Policies, Denial of Care!!!

Gov. Scott Walker's twist on health care subsidies is just starting to get media exposure. It's a hybrid of private school voucher funding and Paul Ryan's health care reform plan. Reporters need to ask why that's a good idea.

Yes, Republicans do have a health care plan, one where employers no longer provide health care, and everyone is given a fixed amount of money that goes straight into an insurers pocket. Americans will be left with picking up the balance, purchase junk policies with little or no real coverage, and tasked with reading small print legalese that gets insurers off the hook. In Wisconsin, Walker repealed an insurance standard that made the small print understandable to an 8th grader. You can figure out why, right?

Just as stunning is the cold, ruthless joy Republicans are getting watching the Affordable Care Act roll out stall due to the web sites tech glitches, a similar problem the GOP had with their own Medicare Part D introduction. See the picture on the right....Republicans are outraged a few million people have had their junk insurance policies cancelled? What about the 5 million the GOP just outright abandoned? 

Is it any surprise then that the insurance industries government cheerleader, Wisconsin Deputy Insurance Commissioner Dan Schwartzer, would back a plan to give taxpayer money directly to the same insurers who have done everything they can sell junk policies and drop sick or dying Americans. This would be an amazing gift. Brutal stuff.

From Upfront with Mike Gousha: