FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 20, 2021
CONTACT: Michele Mackey, CEO/ED
mmackey@kidsforward.org (608) 284-0580 x 324

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The following is a response from Kids Forward’s CEO Michele Mackey following the governor’s announcement calling for a special session to discuss expansion of BadgerCare. 

We thank the Governor for calling for a special session of the legislature to address BadgerCare expansion. We appreciate that he is trying to keep this important conversation going. We call on the legislature to come to the table in earnest, and work out a bipartisan agreement that would expand access to health care and support our economic recovery, while saving more than a billion in state tax dollars.

Expanding BadgerCare will offer more affordable health insurance coverage to 91,000 adults who are working in low-wage jobs. More than half of those Wisconsinites are currently uninsured, and many with coverage are shouldering significant financial burdens to access treatment through private plans. BadgerCare expansion will help address our state’s deep racial inequities in health coverage and health outcomes.  

In addition to significantly improving health care access, expanding BadgerCare presents Wisconsin with an opportunity to save $1.6 billion over the next two years. The Governor’s proposal to invest in many projects in both urban and rural communities, behavioral health, broadband, and Black maternal and child health, illustrates the breadth of ways all Wisconsinites could benefit from such profound state savings.