Wisconsin: Hypocrisy reigns as Walker stops work on health insurance exchanges

[Scuba]

http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/state-should-plan-for-health-care-reform-np3k2qn-136629108.html



..snip..

In an interview with Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel just before Christmas, Gov. Scott Walker announced an abrupt change in Wisconsin's approach to national health care reform. The timing and manner of the revelation was designed to limit publicity for a policy shift that needlessly delays action on one of the most pressing problems facing the state: Declining access to affordable health coverage and hyperinflation are undermining the economic and health security of Wisconsin families and small businesses.

While differing on many of the particulars, it had been the position of both Govs. Jim Doyle and Walker that Wisconsin should vigorously plan the new competitive health insurance marketplaces (so-called health insurance exchanges), which are a centerpiece of the Affordable Care Act, the new national health care reform law. Wisconsin received a $38 million grant to be one of the leading states in designing this reform, and Walker officials have until now repeatedly stated that they will fulfill the terms of the grant.

The goal is to establish greater competition on cost and quality between health insurance companies, consumer standards that outlaw the worst insurance abuses such as the denial of coverage based on pre-existing conditions and to guarantee more consumer options for high-quality, affordable health coverage.

Walker now has shifted the state's position, stating that Wisconsin would suspend planning for implementing the new competitive health marketplaces under the Affordable Care Act until the U.S. Supreme Court decides legal challenges next summer. The problem is that Wisconsin's full implementation plan is due by the end of 2012, and the Legislature will be out of session before the case is decided, leaving Wisconsin unprepared to meet the deadline. This position is inconsistent, as Walker continues to vigorously implement a number of his own initiatives that are under legal challenge, such as his elimination of most collective bargaining rights for most public employees and voter ID.


..end..

[NNN0LHI]

1. Walker is pure evil