For the past few months, Governor Walker has been talking with pride about the fact that the biennial budget bill ensures that Wisconsin’s health insurance system won’t have a gap in coverage for adults below the poverty level. For the first several months of 2014, that won’t be the case if the legislature approves the Governor’s proposal to delay expanding BadgerCare to childless or noncustodial adults below the poverty level ($11,490 for a single individual).
A number of elected officials and advocates sent letters to the Governor last week asking him not to finance the three-month delay in reducing BadgerCare eligibility by also delaying the long-overdue expansion of coverage for adults who don’t have dependent children. One of those letters was sent last Wednesday by Senator Tim Cullen, who said he could find “no humane rationale” for the proposal to delay coverage.
Senator Cullen’s letter urges the Governor to accept the enhanced federal funding for three months to allow the state to delay the reductions in eligibility until April 1, 2014, without also postponing the childless coverage. Cullen wrote that the legislature “need not follow the ‘Sophie’s Choice’ mentality offered by the Governor.”
Last week several county leaders also expressed their disappointment with how the Governor proposes to fund the delay in BadgerCare eligibility changes. The Outagamie, Winnebago, and Fond du Lac County Executives faulted the funding mechanism because it helps one group of poor people at the expense of an even poorer group.
Five advocacy groups also sent a letter to Governor Walker last week thanking him for delaying BadgerCare changes that would cut an estimated 77,000 people off BadgerCare, but asking him to keep his promise to non-custodial adults below the poverty level. The letter was co-authored by AARP, Community Advocates Public Policy Institute, WCCF, ABC for Health, and Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health.
Although advocates support the delay in reducing BadgerCare eligibility, they are concerned about several effects of funding it by delaying all of the BadgerCare changes by three months. One very problematic aspect of the Special Session bill is that it will result in inconsistent income and family definitions in state and federal law, which is likely to create a tremendous amount of confusion over the next few months. How those differences are handled will be a key question for state officials to answer before the legislature passes the Governor’s proposal.
As a WI Budget Project Blog post explains, another unfortunate aspect to the bill is that it opens up a $2.8 million hole in the Department of Corrections budget by delaying Wisconsin’s ability to get federal Medicaid matching funds for payments to hospitals for treating inmates.
The Joint Finance Committee is holding a public hearing and executive session on the BadgerCare bill on Monday, and the full Assembly may vote on it on Wednesday.
Jon Peacock