Medicaid expansion

When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was put in place a decade ago, one key tool to provide health insurance coverage to more people was through the expansion of Medicaid. The states have the choice whether to accept federal Medicaid dollars. While the argument about the ACA has long been along party lines, many Republican-led states have accepted the expansion as a way to insure more people and relieve stressful budget decisions. That has not been the case in Wisconsin. Over the years, former Governor Walker and legislative Republicans have refused to accept over $1 billion in Medicaid dollars.

A hallmark of Governor Evers’ budget proposal is the expansion of Medicaid. Expansion allows 82,000 more people to have affordable health coverage by accepting the $324.5 million annually for which Wisconsin is eligible. Importantly, expansion would leverage $1.6 billion in new federal dollars to invest in our healthcare system for all Wisconsinites, not just Medicaid recipients. However, Republican leaders will instead work from what’s called a “base” budget. This means the starting point will be the last budget that was signed by Governor Walker. Over 100 new budget initiatives proposed by Governor Evers will have to be added back in, needing a minimum nine votes out of 16 committee members.

People across Wisconsin are concerned about the high cost and access to health insurance and health care. Taking the federal dollars to expand Medicaid makes it easier to address this problem. These are our Wisconsin tax dollars that should be brought home to help our neighbors. It seems simple. I have heard from many of you about how important this is. I encourage you to reach out to friends and family across the state and contact members of the Joint Finance Committee if you support Medicaid expansion.