WISCONSINREPORT.COM (11/7/2011) - Wisconsin State Senator Frank Lasee (R-De Pere) is advising Governor Scott Walker to return 49 Million dollars to the federal treasurer. Lasee fears what many have labeled Obamacare regulations might have a detrimental effect on future Wisconsin state budgets.

Four letters and a press release issued on October 31 by Secretary Dennis Smith and Insurance Commissioner Ted Nickel have prompted State Senator Frank Lasee to urge the return of Obamacare Early Innovator grant money.

“Two members of the Governor’s cabinet are aware of the substantial difficulties with the proposed ObamaCare regulations and their likely detrimental effects on future budgets, yet they were working to cement the federal law’s language in Wisconsin State Statutes and pave the way for a compliant ObamaCare state healthcare exchange? That is a mistake,” Senator Lasee said.

Lasee further stated, “The concerns expressed by Secretary Smith and Commissioner Nickel provide several compelling reasons for Governor Walker’s Administration to return the $49 million federal Early Innovator funds they accepted in February for the express purpose of establishing a state healthcare exchange. The Federal Government has made it plain that state exchanges are the vehicle by which they plan to implement ObamaCare.”

“Everyone should be raising an eyebrow over the dangerously mixed messages state leadership has sent," Lasee continued.

We are in a lawsuit to prevent ObamaCare, while at the same time striving to be one of the first to implement the federal law we are fighting.” Senator Lasee said.

An October 4 letter from the Federal Department of Health and Human Services to the Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance (OCI) praises Commissioner Nickel for an emergency rule his office had written to bring the state into compliance with ObamaCare regulations and further acknowledges his efforts to put permanent rules in place.

AB 210, the bill intended to establish those permanent rules in state law, would have entrenched federal law in state statutes and left Wisconsin completely vulnerable to federal whim.

Senator Lasee last week killed AB 210 in the Senate Committee on Insurance and Housing because of the threat it posed to Wisconsinites. OCI had registered in favor of the bill at a public hearing held on October 25th.

“It can’t be an accident that on one hand the State of Wisconsin is saying we reject ObamaCare, while on the other, we have pushed toward it. Until the governor’s administration returns $49 million in Early Innovator funds, Wisconsin remains at risk.” Lasee asserted.

“My office will continue to seek answers in this matter. In the meantime, I urge Governor Walker’s administration to immediatly return the $49 million in ObamaCare implementation funds. Of the states that have accepted these Early Innovator funds, his is now the only Republican administration not to recognize the strings attached and return the money,” Senator Lasee said

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