Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) is no fan of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Upon taking office, Walker “authorized Republican state Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen to join a multi-state lawsuit attempting to overturn it” and replaced his predecessor’s “Office of Health Care Reform” with his own “Office of Free Market Health Care” and tasked it with exploring “all opportunities and alternative approaches that would free Wisconsin” from creating a health insurance exchange.
Walker has now launched a website for the Office “seeking stakeholder input on the design of a potential Wisconsin Health Insurance Exchange.” But click on the “Health Insurance Exchange” tab and you might see the unexpected: Walker touting the federal grant dollars his state has accepted from the very health care law he sees as unconstitutional and is working to oppose:
Walker isn’t the only Republican who is trying to undermine the law while accepting some of its funding. While a number of states are now sending back their federal grants, many continue to accept dollars from Washington even as they complain that the funding is usurping state sovereignty.