Bills Introduced Will Help Protect Wisconsin Businesses, Residents

Today, Senator Leah Vukmir (R-Wauwatosa) and Representative David Craig (R-Town of Vernon) introduced two bills that will help lawmakers protect Wisconsin residents and job-creating businesses.

“The federal government takeover of health care, the Affordable Care Act (also known as ObamaCare) not only spells disaster for high quality and affordable health care in Wisconsin and the nation, it’s harmful for job-creating businesses,” said Rep. Craig.  “The regulatory uncertainty created by the law, in addition to unconstitutional mandates, exploding costs and offsetting tax increases is stifling to job creation.  Our legislature must send a clear signal to job creators that implementation of federal health care requirements will only be done through the stability of statute and not by the whim of a possible future, pro-socialized medicine administration.  Our bills protect against that very thing.”

 “These bills are integral to ensuring that Wisconsinites continue to have access to some of the best health care in the country.  They will increase transparency  and accountability to consumers” Sen. Vukmir explained.  “Wisconsin has one of the most robust insurance markets in the country and our state’s uninsured rate is among lowest in the nation.”

Vukmir continued, “While the federal government continues to push a one-size-fits all approach to healthcare, this legislation will allow the state legislature to evaluate every federal mandate and weigh every option before implementation.”

The first bill stipulates that no provision of ObamaCare may be implemented in the state unless the action is first approved by the legislature in the form of a bill, and then signed into law and enacted.  Furthermore, under the bill, no state agency may request grant money, or other funds, from the federal government to implement ObamaCare in any way and no federal funds passing through the state treasury may be used to assist the federal government in implementing ObamaCare.

The second bill requires state agencies to submit reports to the state legislature on an annual basis on the impact of ObamaCare in the state.  This bill will allow state legislators to monitor the impact of so-called federal health reform on the rate of non-government-issued health insurance plans, Medical Assistance spending, the number of physicians practicing in the state, and the number of insurance companies offering health care plans in the state, as well as other measures.

This legislation comes just as Governor Walker announced last week that his administration would discontinue efforts to implement ObamaCare in Wisconsin. 

“Once again, Governor Walker is leading the state and the nation in protecting taxpayers and job creators from the job-killing mandates of ObamaCare,” said Rep. Craig.  “It is incumbent on the legislature to ensure that statutes are in place to protect access to affordable, high quality health care for Wisconsin’s working families.”