Proposed Bill Would Avoid Damaging Cuts to BadgerCare by Closing Corporate Tax Loophole
At a press conference in the Capitol today, Representative Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee) and Senator Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) unveiled a bill that would stop the Department of Health Services (DHS) from implementing changes to BadgerCare that would result in tens of thousands of Wisconsinites losing state health care coverage. They were joined by several Wisconsin families who depend on BadgerCare for their health care.
The BadgerCare Protection Act would restore to state legislators the authority to set BadgerCare policy. It would prohibit DHS from implementing higher cost sharing requirements and other changes to BadgerCare that could result in tens of thousands of people losing coverage and more than 260,000 experiencing reduced benefits and substantially larger co-pays. (An overview of the changes proposed by DHS and the number of people potentially affected can be found on the WCCF website.). The bill would be funded by repealing a new corporate tax loophole in the biennial budget that costs state taxpayers about $40 million annually, without requiring the creation of a single job.
“Gov. Walker’s priorities are completely backwards,” said Richards. “He is trying to drop health care for tens of thousands of Wisconsin families after opening a tax loophole for large corporations in his budget that costs taxpayers $40 million per year, without any requirement that they create a single job. Our bill reverses Walker’s bad choices.”
“During these difficult economic times protecting affordable health care must remain a top priority,” said Erpenbach. “The BadgerCare Protection Act stops the Walker administration from trying to close the governor’s budget deficit by dropping health care for Wisconsin families.”
WCCF is one of 22 state groups that have endorsed the proposed bill, which will be formally introduced later this week. For more information about the proposal, see today’s press release by the Save BadgerCare Coalition. You can also watch the press conference on WisconsinEye.
Jon Peacock
