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| Scott Walker: "I care too much about the people of this state not to empower them to control their own destiny." (Stein. Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Feb. 13, 2013) |
Update: Walker's Rubik Health Care Solution Cruel Update
'Major step backwards for working parents in Wisconsin seeking healthcare' as Ayn Rand devotee, Scott Walker, echoes Mitt Romney's "47 percent" crack
What do we expect from Scott Walker who blocked Wisconsin from receiving $810 million for funding for a labor-intensive [lots of jobs] project to improve and expand its rail road system?We expect, in the words of Citizen Actions of Wisconsin's Robert Kraig: the same governor to block "billions of ObamaCare dollars that would have extended BadgerCare to over 170,000 additional Wisconsinites, created over 10,000 jobs, and saved the state millions."
Ideological opponents to Medicaid like Walker are counting on the corporate media to muddy the waters and pretend Walker really just loves health care, as Walker pretends to offer another health care plan in an announcement this week that he says allows people to 'choose.'
Walker made his announcement to the rightwing Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce group this week.
Even industry analysts critical of ObamaCare are shaking their heads at Walker.
Writes Scott Bauer in an AP piece picked up around the state, but buried inside local papers:
Gov. Scott Walker's plan to move more people off state Medicaid plans and onto private insurance through a federal marketplace won't result in cutting the number of uninsured Wisconsin residents in half as promised, an independent analyst said Thursday.Walker is adopting the rightwing think tank High Deductible-Health Savings Accounts positions hatched in the late 1990s, and designed to phase out Medicaid and Medicare by ideologues opposed to the popular opinion that health care is a right.
Walker's numbers are inflated because poor people near the poverty line won't be able to afford private health insurance that requires individuals to pay for annual deductibles and other cost-sharing expenses, Bob Laszewski, a Washington-based insurance industry consultant, told the Associated Press after reviewing the Republican governor's plan.
"To me this is crazy policy," said Laszewski, president of Health Policy and Strategy Associates and a frequent critic of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
"These exchange plans were never designed for Medicaid-eligible people. They're designed for middle-class people who can afford deductibles and co-pays," he said.
Joe Tarr at Isthmus quotes advocates who work at getting healthcare for families, and are skeptical and often hostile to the motives of health insurance companies:
Jon Peacock, research director with the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, said that many of those plans will have very high deductibles and copays that will make it difficult for poor people to afford.Citizen Action's Kraig explains w
"Congress didn't intend for the exchanges to be servicing families just above the poverty level," Peacock said. "Even with the subsidies, the exchanges aren't affordable for many low-income families. And not all families will be eligible for the exchanges."
For instance, if people can get insurance through their employers -- even if they can't afford it -- they won't be eligible for the exchange. ...
Bobby Peterson, executive director of ABC for Health, said it looks like Walker is making a political calculation to set himself apart from other Republicans who might have hopes of higher office. "He's trying to distinguish himself from the Republican crowd," Peterson said.
Peterson joined numerous health care advocates and Democrats in condemning Walker's proposal.
"We think it's a major step backwards for coverage of low-income working parents in Wisconsin," Peacock said
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