A couple of articles Monday reported on the latest Republican legislators who have expressed reservations about the Governor’s proposal to remove close to 100,000 people from BadgerCare in January 2014. Several more GOP legislators have indicated interest in a compromise suggested by the Wisconsin Hospital Association (WHA) to delay the Governor’s plan to move those BadgerCare participants into the new health insurance exchanges.
Their concern, which I share, is that the exchange might not be functioning smoothly by November, when the Dept. of Health Services starts to notify many BadgerCare enrollees that their eligibility will end in January. To reduce disruption to the state’s health care system, the Hospital Association has suggested delaying by a year or two the Governor’s plan to cut in half the current income cap for adults in BadgerCare (from 200% of the poverty level down to 100%).
An editorial in the Wausau Daily Herald a week ago does an excellent job of explaining the risks in the Governor’s plan, which have caused WHA and other health care providers to propose alternatives that would provide more expansive coverage at significantly less cost than the Governor’s proposal. (Update: This April 30 op-ed column by Dr. Timothy McAvoy, president of the WI Medical Society, also does a great job of highlighting the reasons not to rush BadgerCare participants into the new insurance exchange.) Jason Stein’s article in today’s Journal Sentinel reported that Senator Alberta Darling, co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, voiced some interest in the WHA plan. And a blog in the Business Journal of Milwaukee today adds Senator Joseph Leibham (R-Sheboygan) and Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale) to the legislators who share the WHA’s concerns that the health-insurance exchanges might not be ready soon enough for a smooth transition. The blog post reports Leibham made the following remarks at an April 23 WHA event:
“I respect what Governor Walker is trying to do in this budget. His goal is to get as many people free and liberated on the key issue of their own health care. We should all strive toward that. While I respect the governor’s goal, I think WHA’s advocates have made a strong argument to look at the timing of reaching this goal. Let’s look at the challenges we are facing because of the uncertainty and complexity of the federal government and their inability to actually make some key final decisions and give direction on this.”
On the other hand, the Journal Sentinel article cites the opposition of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos to any delay in the Governor’s plan, as well as opposition from Rep. Rep. Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield), who is another member of the Finance Committee. It quotes Kooyenga as saying that any problems resulting from implementation of the new insurance market place “should be laid at the feet of the Obama administration and its backers.”
I can understand the desire to avoid taking any responsibility for the potential problems next year; however, I doubt that strategy will work very well for policymakers who resisted assisting in the development of the new marketplace and who approved abruptly shifting nearly 100,000 BadgerCare participants into that marketplace.
Jon Peacock
