Scott Walker, Wisconsin Governor, Rejects Key Health Care Reform

[Poiuyt]

Wisconsin won't create a health insurance exchange, Gov. Scott Walker (R) announced Friday, making it the latest state to reject a key component of President Barack Obama's health care reform law.

Wisconsin was one of the few remaining holdouts until Friday, the original deadline for states to declare whether they would run a health insurance exchange, before an extension to Dec. 14. The exchanges are online marketplaces where uninsured people and small business will shop for coverage and find out if they qualify for financial assistance or Medicaid benefits beginning in 2014. More than half of states have declared they would leave the operation of the exchanges to the federal government, or partner with federal authorities rather than take charge themselves, as the law intended.

Walker decided to turn the health insurance exchange in his state over to the federal government rather than implement it himself, citing in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius his opposition to Obamacare and his belief that states like Wisconsin still wouldn't have enough say over their health care markets even if they manage their own exchanges under federal guidelines.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/16/scott-walker-health-care_n_2144605.html

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. What an asshole. And why am I not surprised?

[lalalu]

2. As others have pointed out this just shows how stupid they are.

These states rights advocates are refusing to comply and allowing the federal government to take more control.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. And until Walker, Wisconsin's Badgercare was one of the better

safety net health care programs. We were far above the national mean in covering the poor.

[Scuba]

4. This allows Walker to blame Obamacare for every real and imagined flaw ...

... all the while saying he would have done it better, if only the feds would have let him.

At a meeting of the Republican Governors Association Wednesday in Las Vegas,. Walker said in an interview that he would prefer a state-based exchange program, but that he doubted that the federal government would allow him to shape it as he saw fit

http://cognidissidence.blogspot.com/2012/11/presidential-pining-passive.html

It's also a nice big slab of red meat to throw to his rabid dogs.

[msongs]

5. registered republicans should be shut out of health care "reform" nt

[Honeycombe8]

6. Texas, too. Governor Rick "I can't remember the third one...oops" Perry. nt