Will the Governor Give up the Grant; Will Federal Officials End It; or Neither of the Above?

An interesting article posted online late Monday by Politico describes “Scott Walker’s health care dilemma.”  The topic is the question of whether the Governor will decide to forsake the Early Innovator grant Wisconsin received a year ago to cover costs associated with health care reform implementation. In recent weeks Governor Walker has been pressured to “return” the federal grant, after he said just before Christmas that the state would stop implementing the health care reform law.

As the article notes, Walker “is the lone Republican governor keeping an Early Innovator grant awarded early last year under the health reform law. ….He isn’t using the $37 million federal grant. He isn’t giving it up. And it may stay that way.”  However, the Governor is under pressure from Senator Lasee and Tea Party activists to reject the federal funding.

The article does a nice job of addressing a couple of misconceptions about the Early Innovator funding. Read more in my post yesterday on the Wisconsin Budget Project’s Blog.

Jon Peacock