Walker is one Ghoulish Sick As**ole.

What does it take to wake the news media up? 

Scott Walker has been so upfront and fascinated with schemes to make insurance company more money soaking the sick and dying, that it stuns the senses. Every other country in the world thinks its appalling and wrong to profit from the sick. 

He didn’t want to extend Medicaid (BadgerCare) because as he said he wanted people to buy insurance. Yes, he said that over and over, and no reaction from the media. His pal Paul Ryan wants to throw more of our money into the insurers pockets by partially privatizing Medicare with no cost containment. 

Now he wants insurers to make money off the elderly and disable. JS:

Gov. Scott Walker's administration wants to shift multibillion dollar programs serving more than 55,000 elderly and disabled people from long-standing nonprofits to national for-profit health insurance companies … affecting the Family Care and IRIS programs.

And Walker doesn’t want insurers to miss a month’s worth of profits either…uh, at the request of insurers:

The Walker administration wants the Legislature's budget committee to allow the program to be implemented in coming months ... “we believe the sooner we can transition to improved services, the better off consumers and taxpayers will be," said a statement from Walker spokesman Tom Evenson.

The insurance industry wants the committee to take up the plan by the end of May. "The sooner the committee acts, the sooner reforms may be implemented, and the sooner both service recipients and Wisconsin taxpayers will reap the benefits of these needed, person-centered reforms," said a statement from R.J. Pirlot, executive director of the Alliance of Health Insurers. His group includes Anthem, Molina, United Healthcare, Humana Inc. and other insurers.

Gee, the insurer that whine it couldn’t make enough of a profit from the ACA exchanges, United Healthcare, wants in on Walker’s plan. Wonder why?

And as we all know, insurers are determined to save premium payers money, even if it hurts their profits, right? And like ObamaCare, Walker’s plan won’t DECREASE the cost of care:

The saving represents smaller cost increases than those currently projected…

In May 2015, the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau said "Because the Department (of Health Services) has indicated that primary and acute care savings have already been realized...it is unclear what additional savings would be realized or other benefits gained from the integration of these services," the fiscal bureau wrote.

Oh and the other Walker connection? Let’s just say this isn’t so much that magical free market solution Republicans are always talking about. This isn’t getting government out of the way, It’s using government to get what private business wants:

Walker's former chief of staff, Eric Schutt, went to work for UnitedHealth Group this year as senior vice president of external affairs. Schutt was the top aide to Rhoades when she was in the Assembly and a co-chairwoman of the Joint Finance Committee … skeptic of Family Care. 

SeniorCare cuts Scott Walker's conservative values on display.

If Democrats were smart they would not let Scott Walker off the hook for taking his budget shortfall out on seniors. 

Instead of paying just $30 a year and copays of $5 for generic drugs and $15 for brand name drugs, Walker wants them to pay around $15 to $130 a month for Medicare Part D. Here's my little formula:

For seniors on a fixed income, here’s a per year comparison:Seniorcare = $30 year.

Compared to….

Medicare Part D = $188 to $1,560 a year.

There is no justification for forcing seniors on a fixed income to pay more, none. This is not just sociopathic, it should be political suicide. But I'm guessing conservative voters aren't paying too much attention right now, like my friend in Milwaukee. They do realize, if they're lucky, they too will be seniors someday. Here's the report from WKOW:



One more thing. Democrats should also hold Walker accountable for signing the last irresponsible budget that everyone knew would result in deficits. Republican budgets are written to pay the bills and "return excess taxpayer money" back as tax cuts. If the cuts result in deficits, that's called bad budgeting. You don't just make more draconian cuts and act like everything is fine.

Walker cuts SeniorCare, forcing elderly out of their homes, and hands money over to Medicare Part D - Big Pharma/Insurers.

First they came for the unions…

…now Scott Walker is coming for the seniors, a major conservative voting block.

SeniorCare is a state program that saves the struggling elderly lot's of money on drugs, and beats the heck out of Medicare Part D costs.

But in one fell swoop, Scott Walker is drowning government in a bathtub, cutting all public ties to education, parks, environment, safety net programs and regulations. Government will be left to do what the founding fathers wanted it to do; steer taxpayer dollars to private businesses, a favorite GOP source for campaign fundraising.  

Kill SeniorCare. Walker wants to turn senior dollars into insurer profits, and that can’t happen as long as the state government is running Seniorcare.

For seniors on a fixed income, here’s a per year comparison:
Seniorcare = $30 year.

Compared to….

Medicare Part D = $188 to $1,560 a year.

That’s the price of freedom and smaller government. For many conservatives, that’s all that matters.  

Seniors slipping into poverty: Seniors on Social Security average $1,305 a month; minus $105 a month for Medicare; minus $140 to $200 a month for supplemental insurance. 

The monthly cost of Medicare is never talked about, and should be. Walker's "small government" plan wipes away a large part of what's left of their fixed income. That's why SeniorCare is so important. 

Rep. Robin Vos may be worried about angering seniors and getting their vote, so he’s taking Walker’s plan and tweaking it; seniors can keep what they have, but no new signups. Private insurers selling Part D will eventually get their money. Source: WKOW.