Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) announced Friday that his state will not set up an insurance exchange under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The decision brings the list of those declining to implement Obamacare exchanges to nearly half the 50 states.
The following statements from health care policy and legal experts at The Heartland Institute – a free-market think tank – may be used for attribution. For more comments, refer to the contact information below. To book a Heartland guest on your program, please contact Tammy Nash at [email protected] and 312/377-4000. After regular business hours, contact Jim Lakely at [email protected] and 312/731-9364.
“A bipartisan group of governors in at least 20 states are rejecting the implementation of Obamacare’s exchanges because they understand they would be creating a new bureaucracy which would have to be funded by higher taxes while providing them with no real flexibility or authority to meet the needs of their citizens. President Obama’s law will now be implemented by the people who actually have all the power in the new system: the federal government.
“Washington bureaucrats will have no one to blame but themselves for the what comes next, and the upheaval in the marketplace which will inevitably arise under their new nationalized regime.”
Benjamin Domenech
Research Fellow, The Heartland Institute
Managing Editor, Health Care News
[email protected]
703/509-1741
“Gov. Walker used solid reasoning in choosing to defer health insurance exchange implementation to the federal government. A state-implemented exchange would not grant Wisconsin any further control over its health care system. Instead, the federal government will be held responsible for the system that has failed to substantially reduce costs in every other capacity.”
Kendall Antekeier
Manager of External Relations
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
312/377-4000
“Today, Wisconsin joins a number of other states – among them, Alaska, Kansas, Louisiana, South Carolina – that are refusing to establish state insurance exchanges. Wisconsin already assists those residents who can’t afford to buy private health insurance or those who can’t get it due to pre-existing conditions. The result is 90 percent of its citizens have health insurance. And, as Walker points out, further flexibility and free market forces can lead to further accomplishments.”
Maureen Martin
Senior Fellow for Legal Affairs
The Heartland Institute
[email protected]
920/ 295-6032
Ms. Martin is a resident of Wisconsin.
The Heartland Institute is a 28-year-old national nonprofit organization headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Its mission is to discover, develop, and promote free-market solutions to social and economic problems. For more information, visit our Web site or call 312/377-4000.
Benjamin Domenech is the founder and publisher of The Federalist and a senior fellow at The Heartland Institute.
Kendall Antekeier is a former government relations staffer with The Heartland Institute.
Maureen Martin, a former legal fellow at The Heartland Institute, passed away on February 5, 2013.
