That collective exhale you just heard came from Wisconsin.
Business leaders are notorious for saying that they do not like uncertainty. Good, bad or indifferent, they are willing to deal with the challenges. They just don’t like surprises.
Two of the most daunting variables have now been taken off the table.
The recall of Gov. Scott Walker on June 6 failed. Walker remains in office with his pro-jobs agenda.
While we still do not know how or if he will succeed with that agenda, we at least know he’s in the governor’s mansion, and the changes in his Act 10 stand.
The second variable to be removed is the future of health care. President Barack Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, was upheld June 27 by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The law survived the challenge to its constitutionality. It is going forward, whether Walker wants it to or not.
Adult children can stay on their parents’ insurance coverage until age 26.
Insurance companies will not be allowed to deny coverage because of pre-existing conditions.
And coverage cannot be stopped when policies are “maxed out” because of the costs of care.
Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, also a Republican, has informed Walker that the state must abide by the federal ruling and its timelines, whether he wants to or not.
The law was passed by both houses of Congress, signed into law by the president of the United States and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. It is the law, no matter what political fundraising e-mails might proclaim.
Most health care experts and advisors in Wisconsin are advising their clients to proceed with the presumption that the issue has been decided, and the changes in the law will be implemented by 2014.
