WisGOP excuses against Medicaid expansion sad and socialistic

2 telling statements in the last couple of days from right-wingers on Medicaid expansion. The first is from the Bradley Foundation's "MacIver "Institute", who put out another pile of dreck to try to argue against expanding Medicaid to the working poor in Wisconsin.

Check out the main hypothesis of this "study."

Medicaid expansion is not necessary. Affordable, taxpayer subsidized plans are abundant all around the state for those in the very population for whom Gov. Evers and his allies seek to expand Medicaid. The following table is just a snapshot of the rock-bottom premiums and relatively low deductibles made possible by taxpayer-funded subsidies for private market coverage - subsidies that total $1.4 billion - 100 percent federally funded.

And where did MacIver find these "affordable, taxpayer subsidized plans" available? ON THE OBAMACARE EXCHANGES! The same Obamacare that MacIver's right-wing puppetmasters are still trying to outlaw in its entirety!

MacIver follows up that dishonesty with more absurdity and spin regarding Medicaid expansion.

Also lost in the conversation are the tens of thousands of newly eligible enrollees who would not be covered by the enhanced federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP) rate. Under expansion, Wisconsin gets a 90 percent FMAP for childless adults added to Medicaid—meaning Badger State taxpayers would be on the hook for ten percent of the added costs.

But the larger population of parents added to the program, about 30,400 new enrollees, would not be eligible for the 90 percent FMAP. That means a new total of 199,100 parents would be eligible at the standard FMAP, in which the state kicks in 41 percent.

1. The assumption is that parents with incomes up to 300% of poverty would automatically be eligible for Medicaid because their kids are. THIS IS NOT TRUE. The eligibility rules for individuals above 133% of poverty wouldn't change one bit under Medicaid expansion...unless state lawmakers wanted it to change.

In addition, the lame complaint about state taxpayers paying 10% of the Medicaid costs of the newly-eligible people near poverty avoids the fact that state taxpayers would save 31% on the costs of every current member of Medicaid. That's a lot more savings to state taxpayers on a lot more people, which means MacIver is the latest contest on "REPUBLICANS - LYING OR STUPID?"

Then today, we got this sneering from GOP Rep and Joint Finance Co-Chair John Nygren.

In what seems to be a trend, @GovEvers is now embracing actions taken by Republicans in the state budget process.

— John Nygren (@rep89) August 9, 2019

Nygren's referring to news from Gov Evers' office last week that credited the state's reinsurance program with lower premiums for people buying insurance on the Obamacare Exchanges. But Johnny the Small Town Insurance Salesman isn't telling you that it comes at a cost to taxpayers - $72 million this year in state dollars, and another $128 million from the Feds.

That money goes to the insurance companies as an way to pay for large medical bills, and is done as an incentive to hold down premiums. So what "free-market, fiscal conservative" John Nygren is saying is that it is a good use of tax dollars to give out money to these private businesses in the hopes that savings will trickle down to Wisconsinites that buy insurance.

Sorry Johnny, but I'd much rather use my tax dollars to expand Medicaid so people are able to choose the services they need, instead of giving it to the middlemen/women of the insurance industry. Same goes for MacIver, who clearly thinks we should center our health policies to serve the needs of the insurance companies over serving the needs of low-income Wisconsinites. WisGOPs won't explicitly say that they're choosing business over people, but when you drill down into the policies that they support and want to fund, that's exactly what they are doing.

Also, think about how pathetic have right-wingers have gotten on this issue. They are now saying the Obamacare exchanges and federal tax dollars do such a good job in covering Wisconsinites that there's no need to expand Medicaid in the state. Someone should ask Ron Johnson and other WisGOPs in Congress what they think about that.