Here in Wisconsin, Medicaid used to approximate what it's supposed to be under the ACA- there was coverage up to 2x poverty level, with a graduated premium between the 1x poverty and 2x poverty income level. But, thanks to the ascendancy of Koch Bro tool Scott Walker and numerous teabagger types in the state legislature in 2010, that's all out the window. Walker flat-out refused the ACA federal funding of what used to be the Wisconsin norm, and pushed through a red-state regression, where now, there's a flat cut-off of Medicaid at 1x poverty income level, and after that, you're on you're own, because, well, there's the national ACA exchange. Never mind that Walker couldn't be bothered to implement a state health care exchange. Never mind that the ACA would have fully funded what used to be the Wisconson norm under Badgercare, put in place by Republican Tommy Thompson. Who cares, when there's an opportunity to make life harder for poor people and demonstrate fealty to conservative dogma?
I hate Scott Walker and the teabaggers and the Koch Bro machine that runs them with a passion. They just aren't human beings in the conventional sense of that phrase. Walker's ambition seems to be to turn Wisconsin into the Alabama of the north. What a guy. I really, really hope he runs for President in 2016, he's not as noxious as Ted Cruz, but he's also way too lame to survive national scrutiny. |
