The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.
Wisconsin has played an outsized role in the long fight for health care coverage for all Americans. UW-Madison economists John Commons and his students Arthur Altmeyer and Edwin Witte were pivotal to creating Social Security. FDR, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, Altmeyer and Witte wanted to include national health insurance in the Social Security Act, but conservatives quashed their efforts.
When Altmeyer died in 1972, then Wisconsin Democratic 2nd Congressional District (CD) Representative Bob Kastenmeier said: “Arthur Altmeyer, often called the ‘Father’ of Social Security (first Social Security Commissioner), died at age 81 in Madison … . Long before Medicare came into being, Mr. Altmeyer was calling for a national health insurance plan.” Many attempts were made by Presidents Johnson, Nixon, Carter and Clinton, and Massachusetts Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy and Wisconsin Democratic Representative Dave Obey. Finally, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) passed under President Obama.
The ACA has dramatically increased health care coverage. In 2025, ACA private health insurance covered 24,166,491 Americans, including 313,579 Wisconsinites. These included farmers, self-employed, small business owners and their employees. ACA Medicaid expansion (40 states) covered an additional 21.3 million low-income Americans. However, the Wisconsin GOP-led legislature has irrationally refused to take federal funding that would pay 90 percent of the cost of Medicaid expansion.
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Trump and the GOP-led Congress, supported by Wisconsin congressional Republicans, have been trying to sabotage the ACA through massive funding cuts, arbitrary and needlessly bureaucratic enrollment obstacles and steadfast refusal to extend enhanced ACA tax credits. Many ACA enrollees will see their 2026 premiums “double to $1,900 from an average of $890” (NYT). Additionally, in Wisconsin the increase is soaring, depending on age, which county you live in and insurer competition. Wisconsin Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin has long been fighting for and voting to extend the ACA tax credits. There is no GOP backup plan.
However, 17 House Republicans finally joined all House Democrats in voting to extend the expired ACA tax credits. One of the 17 Republicans was Ohio Representative David Joyce: “We dropped the ball miserably by not doing something in health care all year long, knowing that the subsidy issue (ACA tax credits) was going to be here at the end of the year” (Washington Post). But Wisconsin GOP 3rd CD Representative Derrick Van Orden’s rationale does not acknowledge the truth.
Although Van Orden voted to extend the expired ACA tax credits there was none of Joyce’s candor. Just false hyperbole in contrast to Joyce: “Democrats knowingly voted for a looming subsidy cliff … .” Despite election-year conversion, Van Orden still wants to repeal the ACA.
Van Orden’s opponent, Democratic candidate Rebecca Cooke responded: “Today’s vote (extending ACA tax credits) is a commonsense step toward lowering the costs of health care … it should not have taken this long for the (House) to act.” If Van Orden is serious he must strongly encourage Wisconsin GOP Senator Ron Johnson to vote for extending the ACA tax credits. Senate passage requires 13 GOP senators. What will Senator Johnson do?
Kaplan wrote a guest column from Washington, D.C., for the Wisconsin State Journal from 1995 – 2009.
