Senate President Receives 25,000 Signatures In Favor Of Medicaid Expansion

Twenty-five thousand signatures were delivered to Senate President Mike Ellis, R-Neenah, today requesting Medicaid coverage expansion.

BadgerCare advocates are putting pressure on the state Senate to take federal money to keep 85,000 people in the program. Yesterday, the Assembly stuck by Governor Scott Walker’s plan to deny federal funds for Medicaid. Walker’s plan diverts those above 100 percent of poverty into online marketplaces to buy private insurance.

Kevin Kane with Citizen Action of Wisconsin says Republicans who have expressed concerns about Wisconsin forgoing federal Medicaid funds need to take action.

Kane: “We only need two state senators to stand with their convictions and actually vote the way they know is moral.”

If the governor’s Medicaid plan is approved, Rep. Melissa Sargent, D-Madison, says the state would actually spend more to cover fewer people.

Sargent: “This is backwards – it doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense in a fiscal manner and it doesn’t make sense in a humane manner”

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau says Wisconsin would spend $250 million more by 2020 if federal Medicaid dollars are turned away. That’s because federal money would completely cover new enrollees for three years. After that, the federal government would provide 90 percent funding. Governor Walker has said he doesn’t trust the federal government to come through with these promised funds. However, other Republican governors against health reform are expanding Medicaid with federal money.

Sargent: “Today, if things don’t go the way we want them to go in the state Senate, it doesn’t mean this fight is over. This deal [with the federal government] does not sunset.”

States could accept more federal Medicaid money at a later date if they expand the Medicaid program.