Walker Makes 'Unthinkable' New Healthcare Promise In Waukesha

WAUKESHA, WI -- Republican leaders staged a campaign rally at Waukesha's Mathison Manufacturing Inc. Thursday morning, just days before the 2018 fall primary elections.

The rally, held before a gaggle of media assembled on the factory floor and a handful of company employees and friends, featured Gov. Scott Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, Speaker Paul Ryan, and senate candidate Leah Vukmir.

Walker, who held the lion's share of time and attention on the factory floor on Thursday, is in a political dead-heat with Democratic challenger Tony Evers in the Governor's race, according to a new Marquette University Law poll released this week.

One of the big reveals on Thursday morning was the announcement that Walker would work to codify protections in the Affordable Care Act for people with preexisting conditions, saying further that if Obamacare were repealed by Congress, his healthcare language would stay.

"As long as I am your governor, everyone living in Wisconsin with a preexisting condition will be covered," Walker said in a Thursday morning speech. "We can protect people with preexisting conditions without protecting the failure that is Obamacare. That's what at stake here."

Walker took aim at Evers, saying that any acceptance of the federal Medicaid expansion funding would result in making it harder for people to afford health coverage.

"What our opponent wants to do is what Minnesota did. They took the Medicare expansion and do you know what happened? Premiums went up," Walker said. "It got so bad that two years ago, the Governor of Minnesota said that the Affordable Care Act is no longer affordable."

According to a Journal Sentinel report Thursday morning, Walker's plan on codifying the Affordable Care Act's language into state plans would have been "unthinkable" in previous years given Walker's historic criticisms of the ACA. The report stated that his announcement "would be nearly impossible in the Republican-controlled Legislature" given the current political environment in the state.

Journal Sentinel reporters Bill Glauber and Patrick Marley poked a couple holes in Walker's new announcement, saying that if the Affordable Care Act were to be repealed, federal laws prevent any state laws from regulating private self-insured plans. The implication being that Walker's plan would not apply to private companies in Wisconsin that self-insure.

Walker also hit his Democratic opponent on the issue of taxes, saying that Evers would tap into nearly $7 billion of new tax revenues to fund state functions.

"Tony Evers' plan is more spending and higher taxes. He wants to spend more than $7 billion in new government spending. Who do you think is going to pay for that? You are," he said. "Tony's taxes will cost us jobs. They're a recipe for a recession in the State of Wisconsin. We went through that recession - I don't want to go back to the days of double-digit tax increases, record deficits and job losses."

Patch Photos by Scott Anderson