Why Walker can't take credit for the states low Uninsured Rate.

Families USA: Between 2013 and 2015: The number of uninsured in Wisconsin declined 37 percent. Working Wisconsinites: The uninsured rate among working Wisconsinites saw a 34 percent decline.

Wisconsin has a very robust health insurance exchange, with 14 carriers offering plans in 2017 — far more than most other states. And almost two-thirds of Wisconsin’s individual market enrollees have coverage through the exchange (as opposed to off-exchange).

 Great job Governor Walker, you deserve a third term for someone else’s policy success?

Enrollment higher in 2017: 242,863 people enrolled in coverage for 2017, 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. According to an HHS report published in December 2016, the ACA resulted in a gain of 211,000 people with health insurance in Wisconsin from 2010 to 2015, and coverage gains continued in 2016. Of those enrollees, 90 percent qualified for premium subsidies. Under the AHCA, those coverage gains would be erased. 

Lucky Us? Wisconsin’s Record Low Rate of Uninsured and Record high Costs? Saving Wisconsinites money has never been the point of Republicans policy. They instead want businesses to make lots of money, all the while poverty rates are up and the middle class is declining in Wisconsin. And Walker has no plan to reign in skyrocketing prices. Run on that Governor Walker:

Doctors in the Milwaukee area are paid 41% more than the estimated national average for the services they provide, a new study says. The same was true across much of eastern Wisconsin: Fees paid to doctors by employers’ health plans in the Sheboygan area were 63% above the national average, ranking them the highest among the 61 markets included in the study by the Health Care Cost Institute. The fees were 51% above the national average in the Green Bay area and 46% higher in the Appleton area.

GOP Free Market to the Rescue? Nope: Sure we’re free to shop for insurance, but once we have it, competition ends. After that, it’s insurer and provider agreements that rake in the cash:

Studies have found that prices are higher in markets where physician practices are concentrated, such as those in which they are owned by health systems … Health systems in the Milwaukee area also have bought physician practices in the past decade and often offered generous contracts to the physicians  …  health systems have more leverage when negotiating fees with health insurers than do small physician practices.

Americans Don’t Know Health Care: Because most people get their health care from an employer, they don’t have a clue about the convoluted bloated system destroying this country:

The United States spent $9,990 per person on health care in 2015. Health care spending accounts for roughly 18% of the U.S. economy. And studies have shown that the main reason that the United States spends roughly 50% more on health care than other industrialized countries is because of the cost of health care services as opposed to its using more medical services or having more physicians and hospitals.

That’s why an “all payer” system would work. The government and insurers would negotiate health care pricing nationwide, and leave the insurance industry to manage payments while selling additional coverage like non-emergency medical services.

Last year’s study, also based on claims data, found that eastern Wisconsin had among the highest prices in the country for 235 common medical services grouped as “care bundles,” ranging from basic tests to back surgery … The new study, in contrast, found that prices for inpatient and outpatient services were only slightly higher than the national average — and below the national average in some markets.

Run on this Scott Walker: In the comments section, a link to the report above was provided, revealing the underlying reason Walker’s to blame for these outrageous costs:

Based on a comprehensive analysis of data made possible by the transparency afforded by the health care law, this report finds three state actions which substantially lower insurance premiums on the individual market. Each of these policy choices has an independent impact on insurance premiums:

➔ Accepting enhanced federal Medicaid dollars.
➔ Implementing robust health insurance rate review.
➔ An elected insurance commissioner.

A former liberal radio talk host who likes to ask the “follow-up question” at Democurmudgeon.blogspot.com