$206,000,000

BY Jeff Simpson

$206,000,000 is the amount of money that Scott Walker cost the taxpayers of Wisconsin,when he rejected the Medicaid expansion allowed under the Affordable Care Act!

Wisconsin could have saved $206 million in 2013-2015 if the state had accepted the Medicaid expansion allowed under the Affordable Care Act, according to a new memo from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
The potential savings is up significantly from the fiscal bureau’s estimate last year of $119 million, largely because more childless adults with incomes below the poverty level have signed up for coverage than expected.
Gov. Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled Legislature rejected federal funding to fully cover people with incomes up to 133 percent of the poverty level, or $26,321 for a family of three, through 2016.
The federal government says it would later cover at least 90 percent of the costs, up from its usual share of 60 percent for the state-federal Medicaid program.

Tammy Baldwin is not happy about it!

 "As you are aware, for over a year I have communicated my belief that you have taken our state down a fiscally irresponsible road by pursuing a plan that has not only created a gap in coverage and newly uninsured Wisconsinites, but also covers fewer people at a higher cost to taxpayers," Baldwin wrote in a letter to Walker on Wednesday.
"Wisconsin is paying a steep price for your insistence on putting politics ahead of progress," Baldwin wrote.
Walker's plan was for the 63,000 adults terminated from the state Medicaid program, BadgerCare, to obtain health coverage on the federal health care exchange. But about 38,000 are unaccounted for and may remain uninsured.
"I respectfully request that you take full responsibility for the consequences of your plan and determine how many of the 38,000 individuals remain uninsured, and immediately develop an action plan to guarantee that uninsured, former BadgerCare recipients enroll in marketplace coverage moving forward," Baldwin wrote.

Naturally, Scott Walker lied!

Explaining his rejection of federal money to fully expand Medicaid coverage, Walker said on Fox News Sunday that "federal government reneging" on Medicaid payments to Wisconsin caused more than $200 million in extra costs in the 2013-’15 state budget.
But typical cost-sharing fluctuations, based mainly on a longstanding formula, explain the extra state burden -- not any reversal of course or pulling back on a commitment by Washington.
We rate Walker’s claim False.

Scott Walker's blind ambition to be President is very costly to the people of WI!  

 

 

Walker's Health Care Malpractice

When Scott Walker said he was going to do his own thing with the health care exchanges and eschewed federal funding to help expand Medicaid coverage in the state, you just knew he was going to bollox things up, and wow, did he ever:

The White House Council of Economic Advisers' report found that expansion in Wisconsin would mean coverage for an additional 120,000 people by 2016. The number of people facing catastrophic out-of-pocket costs would drop by 5,400 annually and the number of people borrowing to pay medical bills or skipping payments on medical bills would drop by 17,100.

Expansion would lead to 11,200 additional jobs in Wisconsin by 2017 and $2.6 billion in additional federal spending in the state between 2014 and 2016, the report said.

Of course, Walker denies all of this and said that the report was about those other states that didn't expand Medicaid, not Wisconsin.

Yeah, right.

This news comes at the same time that it is being reported that the state is facing a $93 million shortfall. The reason that Walker's administration gave for the shortfall, which more than quadrupled since March, was because there are more poor people applying. Needless to say, the reason for the increase in poor people is because Walkernomics is predictably not working.

Walker's administration is trying to deal with this shortfall in his usual method - delaying, if not outright denying, needed services.  The time that the state is taking in authorizing requests have grown almost as exponentially as the shortfall.  The process time for requests through the state Medicaid system has gone from two months to more than six months.  And many times, those requests end up being denied anyway for the most trivial of reasons.

Failure to create jobs, denying and/or delaying services to people that need them and running up a deficit when federal funding is there for the takings....

Walker's train wreck of a health care system reminds me more than a bit of the wreck Walker caused by shunning high speed rail which would have helped create jobs and bring a lot of much needed funding to the state.

Please! I Beg of You!

By Jeff Simpson

STOP calling republicans "Conservatives":

According to a new study, Wisconsin will lose $1.8 billion in 2022 by rejecting federal funds to pay for expansion of its Medicaid program.

While that pales in comparison to the $9.2 billion Texas will lose as a consequence of rejecting federally funded Medicaid expansion, or the $5 billion forgone by Florida, it roughly equals the amount the state will pay that year in incentives to attract private businesses to the state.(edit note: are you seeing the theme?)

And the kicker: Wisconsin residents will still pay federal taxes that go to fund Medicaid expansion in other states
 

It just does not fit anymore!   

Wisconsin Cuts Most People Off Of Medicaid

Well, Scott Walker finally gets to be number one at something - being his own death panel:

Wisconsin would cut more people from Medicaid than any other state as part of a plan advanced by Republican Gov. Scott Walker, according to an independent analysis of data by Kaiser Health News.

About 92,000 Wisconsin citizens, including 87,000 parents and caretaker relatives, and 5,000 childless adults with incomes above the federal poverty level, would lose the Medicaid coverage they previously had as a result of a waiver. Those people would be sent to the online insurance marketplace.

At the same time, the state is planning to add 100,000 Wisconsin childless adults with incomes below the poverty level to Medicaid.

Wisconsin is one of only four states that will reduce their Medicaid eligibility, according to the report. The other three, and the number of people who will lose coverage, will include: Maine, 35,000; Vermont, 19,000 and Rhode Island, 6,700.  Kaiser Health News collected enrollment data from the four states. The changes they plan still need federal approval, which is expected.

Millions of adults nationwide will gain Medicaid coverage next year under the Affordable Care Act.

However, Walker rejected millions in federal funding to expand Medicaid for three years in the state, according to the State Legislature's nonpartisan Fiscal Bureau.

Obviously, it's because he cares too much.

And to think, Walker actually believes that cutting more people off of Medicaid than all the other states combined will get him to the White House.

Or maybe he is just trying to outdo Michele Bachmann for the most psychotic of them all.

Medicare Rejection Motivation

By Jeff Simpson

By now, everyone knows that Governor Scott Walker and his crony Dennis Smith worked together to reject $37 million in federal health insurance money to build a health insurance exchange as a state and turned it back to the Federal government.   This,besides showing the republicans hypocrisy when it comes to states rights, was predicted to cause thousands of Wisconsinites to be unable to afford healthcare and seriously harm small businesses. 

Well as predicted, it does hurt small business. Tremendously.   

Governors who refuse to expand their Medicaid programs for the poor may cost employers in their states as much as $1.3 billion in federal fines, a study found.

A clause in the 2010 health-care overhaul penalizes some employers when their workers aren’t able to obtain affordable medical coverage through the company. Employers can avoid those fees if their workers qualify for Medicaid as part of an expansion that as many as 22 states have rejected, according to a report today by Jackson Hewitt Tax Service Inc.

Without Medicaid, a “shared responsibility” payment of as much as $3,000 may be triggered for each employee who can’t get insurance through their company. In Texas, the largest state to refuse to increase Medicaid, employers may be liable for as much as $448 million in fines, the study found. In Florida, where the legislature has refused an expansion supported by Governor Rick Scott, employers may pay as much as $219 million.

 Once again, Scott Walker's attempt to play to his hard right tea party base is costing small business in WI dearly. 

I have often said that politicians are still subject to moments of candor,  we can occasionally look at their actions listen to their words and see EXACTLY what their motivations are.

In this case, we see that with Scott Walker spending so much time in Iowa, he is even having a fundraiser there this weekend, that he is gearing up to run for President in 2016.   Using this context, and buried in the news, is the real reason why Scott Walker rejected the Medicaid money and is willing to give our small businesses a $1.3 Billion Burden.

South Carolina republican House Member Kris Crawford had a rare moment of clarity that explained it all perfectly:

 Well we knew this is what Republicans thought in their minds, but it’s never been verbalized quite so blatantly. South Carolina House member Kris Crawford said in an interview while discussing Medicaid expansion for the uninsured, “It is good politics to oppose the black guy in the White House right now, especially for the Republican Party.”

There you have it!   

The Stand Up For Medicare and Medicaid Ambulance Tour

From the inbox:

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan want to end Medicare as we know it, leaving seniors without proper care. They also want to repeal the Affordable Care Act which will leave millions of Americans without health insurance and unable to go to the doctor when they get sick.
The Stand Up For Medicare and Medicaid Ambulance Tour will be crisscrossing the state in the days leading up to November 6 Election to raise awareness of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan’s scary plans for healthcare. Join us at an event near you!
Ambulance Tour Schedule:

• 1:00 pm, Monday, October 22, Green Bay Labor Temple, 1570 Elizabeth Street
• 6:00pm, Wednesday, October 24, La Crosse Hmong Cultural Center, 1815 Ward Street
• Noon, Thursday, October 25, Bray Center, 924 Center Street, Racine
• 5:30pm, Friday, October 26, Wausau Labor Temple, 318 S. 3rd Ave
• TBA, Wednesday, October 31, Paul Ryan District Office, 20 S. Main Street #10, Janesville

These family-friendly events are designed to draw public attention to and educate voters on the harmful Romney/Ryan healthcare plan. Bring your friends and family to learn about the consequences of the Romney/Ryan plot to gut healthcare.

In Solidarity,

Phil Neuenfeldt, President
Stephanie Bloomingdale, Secretary-Treasurer

Who Better Than Tommy?!

From Majority PAC:



Nothing like making a scoundrel like Thompson choke on his own words.

Who Better???

Occassionally, republicans speak the truth.  When they do, we need to listen.   This time, surprisingly, it was Tommy G Thompson!

H/T Think Progress:

"[W]ho better than me, who’s already finished one of the entitlement programs, to come up with programs to do away with Medicaid and Medicare? Let’s block-grant what the state has, and allow the states to determine what’s going to go into Medicaid. And Medicare, let’s wait until everyone that right now is under 55 reaches 55 by age [sic] 2020, and give them a choice whether they want to purchase health insurance with a subsidy from the federal government, or stay on Medicare." Tommy Thompson.

H/T Brinmat @ Kos for the better video:



When you have made millions of taxpayer dollars over the years, I guess he does not need medicare(but I am sure he will take every cent he can get).  

Instead of asking "Who better to get rid of Medicaid and Medicare", let us ask ourselves,

Q.  Who better to get rid of Tommy Thompson and preserve Medicaid & Medicare? 

A.  The people of Wisconsin and Tammy Baldwin! 

Boy Did He

Here's the latest ad from Tammy Baldwin, and she took the gloves off for this one:



The press release that comes with the video, with all the damning evidence, can be found here.

Paul Ryan Is No Ageist!

[click to embiggen]

As the gentle reader knows, even though he himself had benefited greatly from Social Security, Paul Ryan wants to privatize it so that all the money goes to his supportive Wall Street friends.  Maybe he feels that this is the way to get them to buy the next rounds of $350 wine.

Likewise, he also wants to gut Medicaid and Medicare, again so that wealth that the tax payers have invested in can be redistributed among the fat cats of Wall Street and big business.

This is nothing new to anyone who's been paying the least bit of attention and doesn't get their information solely from Faux News or talk radio.

But what does make it even more outrageous is that he still wants to do so in the face of a new study which finds that more than 10% of people over the age of 65 is living in poverty and that this number is growing every year.  The study also found that minorities and single women are also more likely to be below the poverty level.

But it's not just the elderly that Ryan is targeting.

He toed the line for the Koch Brothers and voted against preventing student loans from doubling.  As his opponent for the fall election, Rob Zerban, points out, this is a really, really bad thing:

“Doubling the student loan interest rate and saddling our young people with an extra $1,000.00 in costs each year, at a time when families are already struggling to make sure their children have the opportunity for higher education, is a recipe for disaster.

“I personally know how important these programs are – they are the reason I was able to attend school and become a job creator that Paul Ryan and his Washington Republican buddies tout. I was able to live my version of the American Dream because our country made a modest investment in me through Pell Grants and Stafford Loans.

“We as a county can never compete in the global economy if we continually put up barriers for young people to thrive in whatever future they choose.  Paul Ryan’s budget does absolutely nothing to help Americans succeed – it is simply yet another giveaway for the oil & gas companies, Wall Street and corporations who fund his campaigns on the backs of our working families.”

So, as you can see, Paul Ryan is no ageist - he hates the old and the young equally.  In fact, he's no bigot at all either since he shows the same callous disregard for women, men, minorities, even his own constituents.

Or could it simply be that he is having emotional pangs about having to break up with his long-time fantasy girl?

Medicaid Shortfall Less Than Half Originally Reported, Kids Will Still Pay

State officials have reported that the Medicaid shortfall is less than half of what they had originally estimated. But despite all of the "found" savings, they still plan on throwing 60,000, almost half of the children, under the bus:

A letter released Tuesday to lawmakers from Dennis Smith, secretary of the state Department of Health Services, said the two-year shortfall is now expected to be $232 million. Enrollment is rising slower than expected, and costs per patient are lower, he said.

But "it is important that the department continue to pursue the various savings measures that we included in our September report," when the gap was estimated at $554 million, Smith wrote.

The cuts include higher premiums, changes in eligibility and required shifts to employer insurance for some with state coverage. The changes would cause nearly 65,000 people, nearly half of them children, to leave or be turned away from Medicaid, the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau said.

So why won't Eagle Scout Walker do the right thing and restore some of the needless cuts? There is a number of possible different answers:

One is that there really never was a deficit and that the planned all along to raid the fund to pay for holes elsewhere in his budget. He's done that before.

Or he could have "found" the savings to make himself look better to his base in the upcoming recall election. He's done that before.

Another possibility is that he needed to come up with some quick cash to dole out to campaign donors to help fund his flailing recall campaign. He's done that before as well.

But no matter the reason, the one thing that is clear is that walker has again abdicated his role as a responsible leader, as a former Eagle Scout, and as a human being.