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GOP presidential hopeful Scott Walker has long said he wants to repeal President Obama's signature Affordable Care Act, but on Tuesday morning he detailed how he would replace the law. Walker's health care plan calls for lowering the cost of health insurance by reducing regulation of the industry, providing tax credits to offset the cost of private insurance plans and allowing people to shop for plans across state lines. He also wants to restructure Medicaid, the government-provided health insurance for the poor and disabled. (Johnson, 8/18)

The credits would be based on age, and consumers could then decide what plan to purchase, if they opt to buy health insurance at all. “On my very first day as president of the United States, I will send legislation to the Congress to once and for all repeal Obamacare entirely,” Mr. Walker said in a speech in Minnesota. (Rappeport, 8/18)

“It’s all about freedom,” Mr. Walker said Tuesday while introducing his proposal at a campaign event in Minnesota. “Putting freedom back in the hands of patients and families to make decisions about your health care and about your money.” Mr. Walker said his plan is akin to a “tax cut of about a trillion dollars. (Epstein and Armour, 8/18)

Scott Walker became the first top-tier Republican candidate Tuesday to release a plan to replace Obamacare, but conservative rivals said it is too liberal and would create a new entitlement. ... Speaking at a machine parts shop outside of Minneapolis, Walker also said he would sign an executive order to undo what he calls the “special deal for Congress,” which allows the federal government to pay a portion of Hill staffers’ and members’ health insurance as their employer. The provision has raised the ire of conservatives but repealing it would raise insurance costs for staffers on Capitol Hill. (Haberkorn and Cheney, 8/18)

Walker’s proposal to repeal and replace President Obama’s healthcare law hews to general conservative ideas for expanding health coverage with Medicaid block grants to states and a simplified system of federal aid to Americans to buy insurance. But the plan lacks many key details, including specifics on how it would be paid for. Any healthcare law that offers subsidies to tens of millions of Americans for health coverage, as Walker proposes to do, would probably cost hundreds of billions of dollars. (Bierman and Levey, 8/18)

And Mr. Walker noted, in the course of previewing his Tuesday health care speech, that he refused to expand Medicaid in Wisconsin with money offered by the Affordable Care Act. He noted that “a couple of the other governors in this race went the opposite direction.” (Martin, 8/18)

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker assailed Republicans in Congress on Tuesday for failing to repeal Obamacare while unveiling his own plan to repeal and replace the law. The GOP presidential candidate, who has been lagging in recent polls, decried GOP leaders in Washington who have had control over both chambers of Congress since January but have yet to send a bill to President Obama getting rid of the health care law. (Slack, 8/18)

He cast his plan, Tuesday, in terms of a broken promise from Congressional Republicans to repeal Obamacare. "People all across this country are fed up with Washington, I feel your pain, I'm fed up with Washington, too," Walker said. "I think about this, we were told by Republican leaders during the campaign cycle last year that we just needed a Republican Senate to be elected to repeal Obamacare. Well here we sit, you know both chambers of the United States Congress have been controlled since January by Republicans and yet there's not a bill on the president's desk to repeal Obamacare." (LoBianco, 8/18)

Another candidate, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who laid out his healthcare policy ideas last year, criticized Walker's plan. He said Walker was accepting the premise of Obamacare and "merely quibbling over the details." (Heavey, 8/18)