Scott Walker, a candidate for the Republican presidential elections, has proposed the substitution of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act with a new system.
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As the Washington Examiner’s Philip Klein put it, “Walker’s presidential campaign rejected an ideologically purer alternative in favor of a plan that he hopes will prove more politically viable by extending coverage to a wider cross-section of people than rival Republican plans”.
Others point out that lower-income people are likely to pay more for coverage in Wisconsin than in Minnesota because the Badger State’s Medicaid threshold is more restrictive.
And so, while Walker is blustering about how squishy GOP leaders are to blame for failing to repeal Obamacare, he also seems to be quietly acknowledging that the law is increasingly entrenched and just might be helping a lot of people.
The plan lands some distance from a free market, conceding that voters have bought into the pre-existing condition narrative. To deal with this mandate, insurance companies have dramatically increased the price of health insurance for young people, who typically earn less, have nearly no savings, and have student loans.
Walker says his plan would enable all Americans to obtain affordable health insurance, which is the goal of the ACA.
The Walker plan includes numerous tax credits similar to Obamacare, while also calling for reforms to insurance rule cover those with a pre-existing condition.
My plan will restore the full freedom to choose your own health care to the American people. It would gradually phase out (over ten years) the tax preference for employer-paid health-insurance premiums in favor of a universal tax credit that would be made available to all Americans, whether or not they have access to a job-based option. He said Walker was accepting the premise of Obamacare and “merely quibbling over the details”.
“For example, a 35-year-old woman who makes $35,000 per year and has no children gets $0 in Obamacare subsidies – she’s too young and too middle class”, Walker says in the introduction to his proposal.
Robert Laszewski, a health care industry consultant and commentator who has been critical of Obama’s law, called Walker’s proposal naive. “I’m still waiting for a candidate who wants to follow the Constitution and send health care back to the states and private sector, lock, stock, barrel”.
In an outline of the plan released on his website, Walker said he would give greater control over health care to U.S. states by allowing consumers to buy health insurance across state lines and overhauling Medicaid, the federal-state health insurance program for the poor.
Walker’s plan calls for eliminating unspecified regulations in the current law, a move that Walker claims would lower premiums by 25 percent. The key to this proposal is that the amount of the tax credit is based on age and not on income.
“We need to see the specifics”, Laszewski said.
The chief difference in Walker’s plan is setting up block grants for needy families on Medicaid.
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Walker’s and Rubio’s plans, as well as that of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, would undo that crucial part of damage from Obamacare, allowing insurers to tailor plans (no more forced maternity coverage for 70 year-olds) and permit more flexible arrangements like miniature plans.
