Hospital Assoc president says Wisconsin would be hurt bad by Obamacare repeal

This is good stuff to know in advance of tomorrow's potential vote in the Senate regarding Obamacare repeal and changes. Eric Borgerding is the CEO of the Wisconsin Hospital Association and sat down with JR Ross and Steven Walters last week, and Borgerding explained that Wisconsin's Senators and budget-makers should hope that this bill goes down in defeat. And one of those reasons is because the past refusal of Scott Walker and the Wisconsin GOP to expand Medicaid means that they will not get any extra funds to compensate for the possible removal of expanded Medicaid.

As Borgerding alludes to, Wisconsin has spent huge amounts of additional state tax dollars over the last 4 years to expand Medicaid eligiblity to many living at or below the poverty line, particularly childless adults. And related to that, Governor Walker and the Wisconsin GOP made were done with the (likely cynical) idea of pushing Wisconsinites above the poverty line onto the Obamacare exchanges to get coverage.

And many Wisconsintes have gotten coverage through the exchanges, as the Healthinsurance.org site notes.

242,863 people enrolled in coverage for 2017 through the Wisconsin exchange during open enrollment, including new enrollees and renewals. For perspective, 239,034 people enrolled in coverage through the Wisconsin exchange during the 2016 open enrollment period. Nationwide, there was an average decline in enrollments across states that use HealthCare.gov, but Wisconsin bucked that trend and saw a small increase in enrollment.

So from a fiscal and practical standpoint, Wisconsin would be particularly vulnerable and damaged by most versions of the bills that the GOP Congress have put up to deform (if not outright repeal) Obamacare. Now, do I think that'll effect Ron Johnson's vote on this? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

PS-Nearly forgot this. The Joint Finance Committee set aside $50 million in a contingency fund in case TrumpCare or other things would raise Medicaid costs above what they have budgeted.

But the Senate GOP took that $50 million away in their most recent budget plan, because it was the only way they could pay for their $239 million giveaway to businesses by getting rid of Personal Property Tax. Nice priorities, eh?