Scott Walker Unveils Health-Care Plan By Reid J. Epstein and Stephanie Armour
http://www.wsj.com/articles/walker-unveils-health-care-plan-1439872254
GOP presidential candidate would eliminate mandates, provide tax credits based on age
The Wisconsin governor and GOP presidential candidate says the plan wouldn’t add to the federal deficit and would completely repeal and dismantle the Obama administration’s health-care law. Mr. Walker says his plan would give more control to the states, overhaul Medicaid and do away with tax credits based on income. It would also toss out the law’s requirement that insurers offer plans that cover essential health benefits such as maternity care and mental-health services.
Instead, the proposal would provide tax credits to everyone without employer-sponsored health coverage. The credits could be used to purchase insurance on the open market, and the value would be based solely on consumers’ age. Young people — those 17 years old and younger — would get a credit valued at $900, while older consumers between 50 and 64 years old would get a credit valued at $3,000. It would also increase annual limits on tax-free health savings accounts, a popular program for people in high-deductible plans, and it would allow anyone who signs up to get a $1,000 refundable tax credit.
Mr. Walker’s health-care rollout is likely to raise the ire of Democrats and comes a day after he tried to stabilize his flagging campaign’s poll numbers by attacking congressional GOP leadership. In remarks at the Iowa State Fair Monday, Mr. Walker said Senate Republicans are to blame for not sending legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act to Mr. Obama. In a subsequent radio interview, he agreed that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) is “part of the problem.”
In excerpts of his Tuesday speech, Mr. Walker reiterated that theme.
“Republican leaders in Washington told us during the campaign last year that we needed a Republican Senate to repeal Obamacare,” he plans to say, according to the excerpts. “Well, Republicans have been in charge of both houses of Congress since January and there still isn’t a bill on the president’s desk to repeal Obamacare.”
Mr. Walker will set out his health-care proposal at 11 a.m. EDT Tuesday in Minnesota, a state whose Democratic governor, Mark Dayton, embraced the 2010 federal health law and now has the lowest uninsured rate in its history.
The Wisconsin governor becomes the second Republican running for the party’s 2016 presidential nomination to release a health-care blueprint. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal put out a 20-page proposal last year. Every major Republican candidate for president has said he or she would seek to repeal the Affordable Care Act once in the White House.
The Walker health-care plan, which covers 6½ pages, does carry one significant echo of the Obama law: protecting people with pre-existing conditions from a loss of coverage or “huge premium spikes when they get sick.”
“Provided individuals maintain continuous, creditable coverage, no one would see their premiums jump because of a health issue or be shut out of access to affordable health insurance because of a new diagnosis or a pre-existing medical condition,” the plan states.
Mr. Walker’s plan would seek changes to insurance-coverage laws to ensure people with pre-existing health conditions can obtain coverage. He said in the proposal that he would give states flexibility to close coverage gaps. One way would be to make it easier for states to expand pools of high-risk enrollees.
He would reorganize Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for the poor, into smaller, separate divisions. States in one program for low-income families and people without disabilities would be able to set eligibility requirements and rules for how services are delivered and costs are shared. He would also let consumers band together to purchase insurance—for example, letting farmers join together to buy insurance as a group.
He would also seek to put limits on what he calls excessive lawsuits over medical care, a move certain to win some support within the health-care industry while alienating consumer advocates.
But there are many unanswered details, such as the type of tax-code changes he would seek in Congress to deal with generous employer health plans that have been criticized for adding to rising health-care spending. It also doesn’t address whether he would institute caps on the amount consumers would have to pay out of pocket, which is currently in the health law. Mr. Walker criticizes the ACA for causing health insurance premiums to rise without noting that about 85% of people who have obtained coverage on the exchanges have also gotten subsidies that reduce their costs.
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