Senator Jeff Smith
On March 23rd, we commemorated the eleventh anniversary of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) being signed into law. Since its passage, 2.6 million Wisconsinites with preexisting conditions have benefited from enhanced healthcare protections. This certainly is an anniversary to celebrate, but it also reminds us that we still have work to do to get more Wisconsinites covered.
Thanks to the ACA, the federal government has offered to return our own tax dollars back to Wisconsin if we expand BadgerCare, Wisconsin’s Medicaid program. Unfortunately, it’s been eleven years and we still haven’t expanded BadgerCare. If Wisconsin expanded BadgerCare when the ACA first passed, Wisconsin taxpayers would have saved $2.1 billion. These savings could’ve been used to lower prescription drug costs, expand mental health services, improve pregnancy outcomes and more. Wisconsin is still being held back by leaders playing politics with people’s healthcare.
If our own tax dollars can be returned right back to us, I suspect most people would consider it a no-brainer to accept. After all, why should we pay to expand health care access in other states– which is what we’re doing now–before addressing our challenges here at home?
Governor Tony Evers’ 2021-23 budget includes a proposal to expand BadgerCare in Wisconsin. In doing so, we’d be able to expand healthcare coverage to 90,900 more Wisconsinites while also saving our state $634 million. We know Wisconsin could draw in an additional $2 billion from the federal government since President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan, according to the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau. These savings could be reinvested back into new and existing healthcare programs serving residents across the state.
Medicaid ensures that Wisconsin residents have access to preventive and lifesaving healthcare. Current Medicaid programs–including IRIS, Family Care and SeniorCare–are available to help individuals living in poverty, people with disabilities and those who may be ineligible for Medicare. Medicaid provides prescription drug subsidies through SeniorCare. Medicaid helps cover screenings and treatment for breast and cervical cancer for women under the age of sixty-five. BadgerCare expansion would help more Wisconsinites by increasing reimbursements and building greater capacity of existing Medicaid programs.
We have an opportunity right in front of us to cover more Wisconsinites while also saving our state money. This would seem like an easy decision, right? After all, this is about bringing back our federal tax dollars to Wisconsin. The Republican Majority has a different idea. Speaker Robin Vos (R – Rochester) called Medicaid Expansion a “nonstarter” doubling down on Republicans’ opposition.
Many politicians seem to believe healthcare is a privilege – as if the quality of care you receive should depend on how wealthy you are. Whether you believe healthcare is a right or a privilege, our federal tax dollars are still being sent to other states to pay for their programs when it should be coming back here.
Wisconsin is one of only twelve states that have refused to expand Medicaid. Recent reports suggest Wyoming, Alabama and Texas are stepping closer to final passage. We’re paying for these states to expand Medicaid without taking care of residents here in Wisconsin.
We need Medicaid because of our current healthcare system that predicates profit over public health. With a broken healthcare system driven by insurance companies and big pharmaceutical corporations, the most humane thing we can do as a society is ensure that all Americans have access to affordable, high-quality health care. BadgerCare expansion ensures we’re being smart by returning our dollars to lower the cost of Medicaid programs overall.
We can get this done, right here in Wisconsin, by expanding BadgerCare.
Memberships
Steps toward Health Care Reform: Part One
Editor Note - This begins a new feature on Uppity Wisconsin, where legislators will begin submitting blog entries and op-ed features to the blog. Let us know what you think - we'll start out with State Senator Kathleen Vinehout's column on Health Care Reform.
“We have got to figure out how to fix
health care. I think we need to look at what we are doing other
places.” The man called my office to share ideas on how to reform
health care. “Yes,” I agreed.
What have we done in other places? My
constituent was thinking about ideas like workers compensation,
unemployment compensation and the state employees’ health plan.
Wisconsin has several examples of initiatives taken to solve
insurance problems. But so have other states and Wisconsin is
actually lagging behind many of those states.
I recently returned from a national
gathering of state officials working on health care reform. I spoke
with officials from New Jersey, Alabama and Rhode Island and learned
first hand how far we are behind these states. (Yes, even Alabama.)
This past week I met with government officials and business people to
share what I learned and encourage their commitment to reform.
At least 42 states are looking at ways
to expand health insurance coverage. Seventeen states have been
successful at some type of expansion.
Usually the states first acted to bring
in as much federal money as possible by expanding Medicaid – the
health program funded by the state and federal government. Currently
states must ask permission of the federal government to expand their
Medicaid program. This is necessary to capture matching money from
Washington.
It is important for Wisconsin to take
such action because we bring back to our state far less than we send
to Uncle Sam. More than eighty percent of states bring back more in
federal dollars than Wisconsin.
Last year, we took the first step to
expand our Medicaid program with BadgerCare Plus.
BadgerCare Plus provides health care
for low income families (and ‘families’ include children age 18
or under). The federal government kicks in at least 60% of the money
- helping our state dollars go much farther. We expanded eligibility
and now have 70,000 new people enrolled. Interestingly, most of the
new enrollees were eligible under the old plan but just now heard
about it.
We still have significant problems:
BadgerCare Plus (as all state child health insurance programs) was
designed to cover children and families. But adults account for 80%
of the uninsured. Many have no children or adult children, making
them ineligible.
Officials are now working with the
federal government to expand our BadgerCare Plus program to include
people with no children age 18 or under. Permission to do this, we
hope, will be granted by the end of September. It will take about six
months to put the new program in place.
This is a big step forward and will
help many who now cannot find affordable coverage in the private
insurance market.
The steps Wisconsin is taking helps
address the problem of the uninsured but not the problem of rising
health care costs. To do this we must grapple with changes to our
insurance system. I recently learned that Wisconsin has some of the
most lax rules in the county on insurance companies.
For example, thirty two states have
rules limiting how pre-existing conditions are used to rate
individual insurance plans. Not Wisconsin.
Thirty states require an advance review
by the state of proposed individual plan rate increases before they
can be changed. Not Wisconsin.
Perhaps this is why we see so much
variation in premiums and so many people every year going back to the
market to find a better deal on health insurance.
Next week I will explore the steps we
can take to bring down our health care costs.
If you have ideas, please do not
hesitate to call or write. Senator Kathleen Vinehout State Capitol
P.O. Box 7882 Madison, Wisconsin 53707-7882 or 877-763-6636 (toll
free). If you have missed a column, check out
www.legis.wi.gov/senate/sen31/news/
or email me at [email protected].
Senator Jeff Smith has served in the State Senate since 2019. Senator Smith has worked tirelessly in his community on public education opportunities, health care access and affordability, redistricting reform, protections for water and helping people run for elected office.
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