State Sen. Frank Lasee, R-De Pere, asked the state Monday to return $49 million in federal grant money designated to implement the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in Wisconsin.
The Affordable Care Act that passed in March 2010 aims to increase health care coverage by requiring individuals to get either private or public health insurance.
Wisconsin was one of seven states to receive “Early Innovator” funds in February from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The state would use the funds to develop technological programs that would make choosing health insurance easier for consumers by 2014.
Lasee said people should be concerned by the Walker administration’s “mixed messages” in keeping the federal funds.
“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,” Lasee said in a statement. “Until the governor’s administration returns $49 million in Early Innovator funds, Wisconsin remains at risk.”
Lasee, the chair of the Senate Committee on Insurance and Housing, also said Nov. 1 he would prevent the passage of Assembly Bill 210 that would have aligned state law with the Affordable Care Act.
