Wis. senators opposed on health care
Johnson backs ACA repeal plan; Baldwin supports Medicare for all
Wisconsin’s two U.S. senators have long been on opposite sides of the health care debate and on Wednesday those stark differences will be on full display as the issue heats up in Congress.
Republican Ron Johnson is expected to sign on as a co-sponsor of the GOP’s latest attempt to replace the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare.
Meanwhile, Democrat Tammy Baldwin said in an opinion piece for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that she supports Medicare-for-all legislation that will be introduced by independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
At a news conference in Washington, D.C., Johnson will join Republican Sens. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Dean Heller of Nevada to discuss their health care proposal.
Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania will also attend the news conference.
The bill is designed to help ensure parity in federal funding for health care between those states that expanded Medicaid under Obamacare expansion and those that did not, according to a 23-page summary draft obtained by NBC News. Wisconsin was among the states that did not expand.
Under the proposal, federal money would also be given to each state to implement their own health care plans. It’s unclear if the bill has the support of Republican leadership.
Writing in the Journal Sentinel, Baldwin said she backed Sanders’ Medicare for All, a federally administered single-payer health care program, because “the goal must be universal coverage for everyone.”
Baldwin is expected to be a co-sponsor of Sanders’ bill, to be introduced Wednesday.
“With this reform, we would simplify a complicated system for families and reduce administrative costs for businesses,” she wrote. “It would expand coverage to all the uninsured, make health care more affordable for working, middle-class families and reduce growing prescription drug costs for taxpayers.”