Wisconsin’s top two Republicans probably caught a break when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Obamacare.
Now Gov. Scott Walker, seeking to be the next president of the United States, can sidestep questions about his vision of health care financing in America. Rather, he can denounce President Obama, congressional Democrats and their health law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
But Walker will find he is not alone. The other dozen or so GOP presidential hopefuls will be singing from the same political song sheet. They likely will promise to repeal “Obamacare” as soon as they take the presidential oath.
U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, who is running for a second term, sought to develop a position for Republicans in case the Supreme Court struck down Obamacare. Johnson suggested that the popular additional benefits be continued in the interim, but that mandatory participation requirements be rolled back until early 2017, when a Republican could occupy the White House.
However, the American Academy of Actuaries said that wouldn’t work and predicted the Affordable Care Act would crumble if the participation requirements were eliminated. The collapse would have a bigger impact in rural and northern Wisconsin than elsewhere in the state. At the end of March, 183,155 people in Wisconsin had enrolled in Obamacare. More than 90 percent of them were receiving federal subsidies to get the plan.
Among eligible non-elderly adults, participation was at 4 percent in Milwaukee County and 3.3 percent in Dane County. Participation in some rural northern counties was above 10 percent of the eligible non-elderly adults. The northern and rural areas are largely Republican country in Wisconsin.
-Matt Pommer is the dean of Capitol correspondents in Madison. His column is published with permission from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association.
