Has Scott Walker Figured Out How to Navigate ObamaCare?

Detractors can find many things to hate about ObamaCare--towards the top of that list is the law's unnecessary and/or unwarranted complexity. Last year the federal government released a guide book for the law clocking in at 70,000 pages. To avoid what many view as a burden placed on states through the law, 13 Republican governors have rejected ObamaCare's Medicaid expansion, with Republican Scott Walker of Wisconsin becoming the latest to do so this week. Walker's decision has raised eyebrows as it appears he has found a plan to avoid the Medicaid expansion while covering many uninsured and cutting some of his state's Medicaid program, POLITICO reports:

The Republican announced that he is rejecting Medicaid expansion and the billions of federal dollars that would come with it. In fact, he’s proposing a net cut in the state Medicaid program.

Walker would take thousands of people currently on Wisconsin’s relatively generous Medicaid program — people who are above the federal poverty level — and move them into the Obamacare exchange instead, where they can get federally subsidized private insurance. Walker has already said he won’t run the exchange, requiring the federal government to take control instead.

Once that group is out of Medicaid, he’d permit more of the state’s poorest residents to come in. But overall, Medicaid enrollment would drop by about 5,400, according to estimates provided by Walker’s office.

Walker packaged his plan as a responsible effort to cut into the ranks of the state’s uninsured while weaning low-income residents off a reliance on entitlement programs.

On 'Real News' Thursday the panel discussed Walker's plan and if it can be used as a guide for governors interested in navigating ObamaCare in the most cost effective way.