As Republicans celebrate the return of Molina Health to the Affordable Care Act marketplace next year, one state Democrat says this wasn’t entirely their doing.
Janesville state representative Deb Kolste says she’s confused as to why the Republicans are touting this as their victory.
“It’s a curiosity. I’ve been reading some of the press releases that due to the Republican programs, they’re coming back to the state. It was under those very same programs that they left the state.”
The state legislature approved a $200 million reinsurance package earlier this year that will help insurers cover the costs of the most expensive treatments of their patients. That prompted Molina Health to return to the market after leaving it in 2018.
Kolste says people should know that this program is baked into the Affordable Care Act as a measure to keep insurers in the marketplace.
“Certainly, nationally now as we try to tear it apart, I think people should know that they’re going to lose a valuable product that indeed a conservative state like Wisconsin is now using.”
Kolste says the reinsurance program is just coming at the issue of funding providers directly, rather than offering subsidies to patients. “More and more rests on the shoulders on the government, and with this reinsurance programs that’s just another step in that direction too.”
The Walker administration is looking to help bolster the funding package by getting federal funding under the Affordable Care Act.
