Wisconsin households will save an average of $1,467 per year after full implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), yet the Walker Administration continues to push for repeal. Yesterday, the Walker Administration released copies of their comments to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the ACA Health Insurance Exchange regulations. Their comments, and corresponding press release, continue to push for repeal of the ACA. However, today, Families USA released a report, “The Bottom Line: How the Affordable Care Act Helps Wisconsin Families,” which outlines the significant health care cost savings in store for Wisconsin families (as noted above). The Families USA report looks at a range of health reform benefits, including protections against high deductibles and copayments, elimination of lifetime and annual limits on covered benefits, and improvements to the health care delivery system itself. It finds that Wisconsin households, both with insurance and uninsured now, win big with the ACA – through direct financial relief in premium tax credits, expanding affordable insurance options, and reforms of the health care system which will slow the growth of underlying health care costs.

The Health Insurance Exchanges are a crucial part of this affordable coverage expansion through the ACA. WCCF submitted comments on the proposed regulations from HHS, focusing on the positive elements of the regulations—like the “no wrong door” approach to enrollment in Exchange or public programs like Medicaid—as well as places where the regulations could be strengthened—like the conflict of interest rules and affordability test of employer sponsored insurance. The WI Department of Health Services and Office of the Insurance Commissioner’s comments emphasized that 95% of Wisconsinites have access to health care, and attribute that high rate to our insurance market alone. What Administration officials are forgetting is that in recent years of severe economic depression, the private and employer sponsored insurance markets have had declining rates of insurance coverage, while BadgerCare has picked up the slack. Read more about this in WCCF’s analysis of the Census insurance coverage numbers. The ACA helps push us further towards access to affordable coverage for all Wisconsinites – and not remaining satisfied when 5% of kids and around 10% of adults in Wisconsin are uninsured.

Our friends at Citizen Action of Wisconsin called out the Walker Administration for failing to recognize the need for the ACA in their press release here.

Sara Eskrich