Scott Walker Refuses To Implement Health Care Reform

Scott Walker does know that the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act on Thursday, but the Wisconsin governor just doesn’t care.

Fresh off his June 5 recall election win, Walker said the state will not move forward with implementing the health care overhaul, even though it was upheld against a Supreme Court challenge. He said Thursday that while he wished the court had overturned the law, he still believes a new president and Republican-controlled Congress will overturn it next year, the Associated Press reported.

“While the court said it was legal, that doesn’t make it right,” Walker said at a news conference. “For us to put time and effort and resources into that doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

Wisconsin was one of the 26 states that challenged the requirement that everyone must purchase health insurance, with Walker claiming it would require residents there to “pay more money for less health care,” the Wisconsin State Journal reported. He had already said the state will not set up a health insurance exchange, which helps provide subsidies for people who have difficulty getting insurance, the report said. States must have exchanges in place by 2014 or else the federal government will create and run them instead.

Though Wisconsin Democrats praised the law, they also had criticism for Walker’s gamble that the law will be overturned.

“Ignoring federal laws in hopes that someday they will be repealed is ridiculous and irresponsible policy making,” state Rep. Kelda Helen Roys, D-Madison, told Associated Press reporter Todd Richmond. “(Scott Walker), who falsely calls for increased bipartisanship, is once again pursuing his extremist policies at the expense of Wisconsin families.”