ICYMI: Wisconsin Democrats, Main Street Action Hold Press Conference to Address the Health Care Crisis as ACA Open Enrollment for January 1st Coverage Closes
MADISON, Wis. — Today, Senate Democratic Leader Dianne Hesselbein, Assembly Democratic Leader Greta Neubauer, and WisDems Chair Devin Remiker joined small business owners from Main Street Action to address the impacts of the GOP’s ACA cuts and Tom Tiffany’s health care record. Right now, Republican politicians in D.C. like Tom Tiffany are creating a health care crisis and forcing working people with the choice between going to the doctor or the grocery store.
As a result of the GOP cuts, roughly 300,000 Wisconsinites who receive an ACA tax credit will go without medical coverage or face unnecessary and unbearable financial hardship, with a couple over the age of 60 seeing a possible rate hike of $33,000 a year.
Watch the press conference here and see what speakers had to say, in part, below:
Senate Democratic Leader Dianne Hesselbein: “Wisconsin, right alongside Mississippi, is among the last states to expand Medicaid. When states are forced to operate under the kind of Republican dysfunction we’ve dealt with here, the outcomes can be devastating. First, Tiffany and his colleagues voted for the Big Ugly Bill over the summer, which already kicked over an immense burden to the state as they rejected bringing home our tax dollars. And now that Tom Tiffany has voted for these ACA cuts at the federal level, even more health care costs will fall to the states. Wisconsin Republicans have no vision for our future and no plan to stand up for the people of our state. Whether we’re talking about Tom Tiffany’s attacks on healthcare, Howard Marklein’s efforts to strip funding from our schools, or Senate Republicans refusing to pass legislation to lower costs – Republican lawmakers are willing to stand by and watch as Wisconsin families suffer the consequences of their failed leadership.”
Assembly Democratic Leader Greta Neubauer: “Almost half of all people with Affordable Care Act coverage are small business owners or employees, or are self-employed […] Premiums for an individual on the exchange are expected to increase by an average of $664 a month, imagine what that will do for a salon or barbershop employing ten people, your dog groomer, your kid’s daycare. Without these healthcare tax credits, some business owners will be unable to provide coverage for employees and will face staffing shortages because people simply will not be able to work for small businesses who can’t provide health insurance coverage […] Entrepreneurs and small businesses are the backbone of the Wisconsin economy. But we are being failed by politicians like Tom Tiffany and Congressional Republicans, who think we should give tax breaks to billionaires and leave small businesses to foot the bill. Wisconsinites deserve leadership that supports working families and promotes policies that will help everyone in our state thrive, not politicians who will create hurdle after hurdle until only the rich can succeed.”
WisDems Chair Devin Remiker: “Republicans have been working for over 15 years to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. That’s 15 years where they could have come up with their own plan to come to the table to help improve the program. And Tom Tiffany who’s been off in DC for five years, planning his next run for office, admitted that he and the GOP have no plan. Tom Tiffany has been in politics for a long time, but he’s no public servant. Whether it was in the capitol building behind us voting against Medicaid expansion, or now running away to Washington, Tom Tiffany has made one thing clear to Wisconsinites — his governorship would be a health crisis.”
Macy Buhler, Childcare Center Owner: “I have about 30 employees. What the ACA subsidies did for me is they helped level the playing field. They helped me get my staff benefits that they deserve, that they need. They take care of our youngest citizens. They hold them, they cuddle them when they’re feeling sick, when they’re waiting for their parents to come. They’re exposed to everything under the sun and I need to keep them healthy as a business owner. I am very very worried about retaining and obtaining staff and keeping our childcare businesses all around the state open. Without expanded medicaid and without the ACA credits we are struggling to offer basic needs of health care to our staff all around the state. […] I don’t know how to warm up the hearts of the grinches who keep saying we don’t need this. I don’t know how to make them see that children and small businesses, families, our farmers all need the ACA subsidies.”
Chef Evan Dannells, Restaurant Owner: “My small business has about 10 full time employees and every single one of them are going to be in the income range that’s going to be hit the hardest proportional to income by the subsidies not being renewed […] for most people, the single largest cost that someone has outside of rent or a mortgage is health care […] the ACA was the first time a small business owner like me had something where i could reasonably expect employees to get benefits at a rate that was reasonable because my business has too small of a buying power to get large corporate discounts for buying a whole bunch of insurance policies.”
###
