Ryan open to bipartisan approach to healthcare reform

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Janesville, is open to working across party lines to reform healthcare.

Ryan said at a WisPolitics.com event Friday in Milwaukee that lawmakers will have to work “incrementally, I think, to get at the root cause of health inflation to make healthcare a more innovative, competitive system.”

He’s also in talks with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Democratic lawmakers about various “risk mechanisms” that could allow states to recreate their high-risk pools.

“I think there may be a bipartisan opportunity,” he said. “That will help us with health inflation, health competition and choice now that the individual mandate is gone.”

Ryan said that a priority for him this year is workforce development. He threw cold water on reforming entitlement programs like Medicare, which he said is “more of a wish list” for him.

“I don’t see us tackling it this year,” he said.