Even Senator Ron Johnson Knows the AHCA is Whack!

It’s a rare day when I agree with anything that comes out of the mouth of Wisconsin’s Republican Senator, Ron Johnson. Even though he’s hard core tea party, he recognizes when the health insurance plan being pushed by House Speaker Paul Ryan is totally whack.

Senate Republican Ron Johnson of Wisconsin expressed deep skepticism Tuesday about the Obamacare replacement bill his party is struggling to pass in the U.S. House this week.

“I’ve got a lot of problems with the House bill as it’s written right now,” Johnson said at a gathering hosted by WisPolitics.com.

But normally you’d expect his skepticism would be based on his hard core tea party leanings, but he actually makes serious sense in his opposition:

Johnson told a reporter that “skeptical” was an “understatement” in describing his attitude toward the plan.

He noted that the House proposal reduces the overall pot of money available under Obamacare to subsidize the purchase of insurance by enrollees.

But at the same time, it makes subsidies available to a larger number of people by expanding eligibility to those with higher incomes.

“Why spread out the subsidies to more people? Why expand the entitlement? It doesn’t make any sense,” he told a reporter Tuesday.

The effect, Johnson noted, is to reduce the subsidies going to poorer people while giving some people with higher incomes an entirely new benefit.

Lower-income people get less, he said, “but we’re helping (higher-income) people that Obamacare never helped. Politically, it doesn’t make any sense. Economically, it doesn’t make any sense.”

No, it doesn’t make sense to cut subsidies from people who really need support to afford health insurance and then award subsidies to those of us who don’t need help. So Senator Johnson’s got it right.

Unfortunately Senator Johnson isn’t actually going to step up and present a logical comprehensive health insurance repair bill nor a functional replacement bill…but we can be a little hopeful:

Said Johnson: “Let’s be honest. Not a whole lot of people are loving the (House bill) right now. I will not vote to support it until I have enough information that whatever we’re going to pass will work.”

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3 thoughts on “Even Senator Ron Johnson Knows the AHCA is Whack!

    1. So as a pharmacist, you don’t see any value with all Americans having health insurance?

  1. Thank Rubio for the poison pill killing the risk corridors. This isn’t a health plan it’s a massive tax break for the rich.

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