Vos bypasses Medicaid Expansion/Jobs/New State Revenues to protect Insurer Profits!!!

Fulfilling campaign promises is so important to Republicans that they would shut the government down to keep one.

Yet when Democratic Gov. Tony Evers tried to do the same thing, promising to expand Medicaid, he's accused of trying to "score political points?" And that's what snarky Republican Rep. Robin Vos said about Evers proposal.

Medicaid Expansion No Brainer: WPT's Here and Now presented a few important points, including the not so surprising admission by public servant Vos that he's out to protect insurance profits, and not provide health care to constituents.

First, here's what Gov. Evers sees as a win-win for Wisconsinites and the economy with Medicaid Expansion. The math is inescapable, and another revealing horror from Scott Walker's "legacy:"

Yes, Vos and Sen. Scott Fitzgerald walked away from $1 billion because government would just spend, spend, spend...on roads, schools, broadband expansion, pay of debt, etc.??!!!

In fact, Evers is so sure about Medicaid Expansion, that he's taking it directly to Republican rural voters who have been ignored by Walker and the legislature for years, under the guise of "small government." The days of rural resentment might be over.

Tony Evers: If Republican legislators who come from small town Wisconsin that understand that the success of those small town hospitals and clinics depend upon having access to greater resources, they may change their mind. So we’re going to take this directly to the people of Wisconsin in a respectful way.

Uh-oh, Wrong Argument Robin...: For Vos, it's not about helping and strengthening rural communities and farmers, nope, it's about protecting those city slicker insurers.

Vos claims insurers will be forced to pay into Medicaid Expansion, and then increase insurance rates on those buying policies in the private sector, something I can't confirm after extensive research (but I did find job creation and higher state revenues-shown later below).

Still, and ironically, those terrible "higher insurance premiums" Vos is complaining about, well they're a major funding source for the Republicans much touted "high risk pools." Seriously? Good luck selling that plan now:

Robin Vos: Every person that’s on BadgerCare is subsidized by somebody who’s in the private insurance market. So the more people that we take from the private insurance market to put into the public market, the higher the rates are going to go for those people who have private sector insurance. So granted, there might be a short one-time savings for the state, but that is more than offset by the cost in the private sector for what they have to pay to subsidize those people who are already on BadgerCare.

Wisconsin's Far Right Legislature nothing like other Red States: Vos is also wildly wrong about "a short one-time savings for the state." In fact, expansion pays for itself and so much more, and research proves it:

Forbes: Republican-leaning states like Montana have used the economic argument to help win over skeptics ... which expanded Medicaid in 2016 to more than 90,000 people. A study out this month from the University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research shows the expansion of Medicaid generates a half-billion dollars a year in healthcare spending. Of that, 70%, or $350 million to $400 million, is “new money circulating in Montana’s economy.”

The gerrymandered Republican majority at the Capitol will now have to argue against real jobs and economic numbers. Other red states are also moving forward:

The Montana report comes as Missouri, Nebraska, Idaho and Utah are working to put Medicaid expansion on this November’s general election ballot and as legislatures in other states like Virginia and Utah are moving Medicaid expansion bills forward.

It’s new money into the economy,” University of Montana’s Bryce Ward, the study’s author, said of Medicaid expansion in an interview. “In 2020, the state has to pay its full 10% share, but you get the 90% from taxpayers in other states.”

“Medicaid expansion has a positive fiscal impact on the state budget. Medicaid expansion reduces state spending in some areas (e.g., traditional Medicaid). It also increases economic activity and, as such, increases state revenue,” Ward and fellow researcher Brandon Bridge wrote in their University of Montana study. “Combined, the savings and increased revenues are sufficient to more than cover the Montana’s share of Medicaid expansion costs (10% in 2020 and beyond).”

Last year, the University of Michigan said “ripple effects” from Medicaid expansion created more than 30,000 new jobs, including 85% in the private sector.

“We are employing more people,” Ward, of the University of Montana, said of Medicaid expansion. “You can see it.”

Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty loves short term Junk Insurance policies, and a Desperate Public!!!

The Cap Times column, State Debate, pointed me to an article that was so nonsensical, that I just had to pass it along.

This represents the brain trust of right wing "fellows" at the lawsuit mill Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL). WILL has been furiously raising funds in preparation to challenge almost everything Gov. Evers and AG Josh Kaul will put forward as policy.

First up, Covering Preexisting Conditions: Perhaps WILL Research Director Will Flanders thought most readers would just give up and default to his bigger point about gladly buying junk insurance policies if he just wrote a bunch of words that sounded pretty darn official.

Let's look at the "institutes" case for short term junk insurance policies, a big part in Trump's health care reform plan. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers isn't buying into this horrific scheme:

Flanders

Among the executive orders signed by Governor Tony Evers in his first week was a directive for DHS and DATCP to “provide recommendations on how to…. Protect against attempts to undermine the Affordable Care Act marketplace with short term plans that do not comply with Affordable Care Act requirements...” 

Flanders went on to explain why short term plans are nothing more than junk insurance policies that don't cover preexisting conditions:

Short-Term Limited Duration (STLD) healthcare plans were originally designed as a stop-gap measure for people who would be lacking insurance for (appropriately enough) a short time …Critically, such plans were exempted from many of the mandates of the ACA, including language on preexisting conditions...

Down the Rabbit Hole: To be clear, if you get sick while on a short term insurance plan, you are now strapped with a preexisting condition, and you can't get another short term policy. Again, Evers is against short term junk plans. 

But Flanders doesn't get that. In an incomprehensible word salad explanation, Flanders somehow ended up blaming Evers for "exacerbating the problem? I know, you've got to read it to believe it:

One result of placing greater limitations on such plans is that people may be left entirely without coverage options if they get sick while on a STLD … individuals who enroll in short term plans and get sick during that plan may not have coverage options when those plans come to an end. This serves to exacerbate the problem of uninsured that people like Evers purport to be so concerned about. 

Junk Insurance, a Necessary Evil: But wait, Flanders isn't done embarrassing himself. He still wants these junk policies in Wisconsin because...the "public is desperate." Of course they are, isn't that how we want people to feel? You can't make this sick stuff up:  

The second, and perhaps even more critical, problem is that limiting the time frame of these plans removes a viable healthcare option for Wisconsinites who may be struggling to afford insurance coverage. Short term plans represent a viable alternative for a public desperate for affordable options.

Rather than being concerned about protecting the viability of the ACA, let’s consider the healthcare needs of Wisconsin’s low- and middle income families, who perhaps don’t want or cannot afford Obamacare plans.

Note: Evers and Democrats aren't simply "protecting the viability of the ACA" for political reasons, they're trying to give everyone affordable access to health care short of universal care.  

Let's hope Evers tells the insurance commissioner and specifically Cari Lee at enforcement, to examine and negotiate lower rates in Wisconsin: 

Wisconsin’s’ average insurance premiums are among the highest in the nation in both urban and rural parts of the state.