Earlier today, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker released his “The Day One Patient Freedom Plan” to repeal and replace Obamacare. It’s straightforward, substantive, and surprise-free (a lot like the two –term governor and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination). The plan helps position Walker in a leading role on this issue, before other rivals decide whether it’s better to say “me, too” or draw some distinctions in their own approaches to national health policy.
The plan is a starting point. It remains far from the 2016 campaign’s finish line, let alone legislative action in 2017. But it moves ahead the next phase of the Republican debate over Obamacare, after disappointment last June at the Supreme Court, in the King v. Burwell legal challenge involving subsidies for federal-government-run health exchanges.Let’s start with a few highlights of what Governor Walker proposes, and why he does so. In subsequent articles, I’ll take a look at some remaining questions and challenges regarding the plan, as well as a quick review of Sen. Marco Rubio’s competing approach (also released last night).
Walker’s opening stance is that of an outsider wanting to restore health care decision making to families, local communities, and state officials. He points to the injuries caused to millions of Americans who already were satisfied with their pre-Affordable Care Act (ACA) health insurance, in terms of the higher premiums or lost coverage they experienced in recent years due to the new health law’s regulatory requirements. Walker also targets Medicaid reform as a urgent priority, given that the ACA’s insurance coverage gains and increased federal spending depend so much on the law’s expansion of that overburdened federal/state program. The Wisconsin governor also looks ahead to the 2016 campaign, portraying Obamacare as a descendant of 1990s HillaryCare, and likely to pushed even further Left in any future Clinton presidency.
Read the full article at the American Enterprise Institute: Walker’s first pitch against Obamacare: A high hard one
