A recent poll from Marquette University shows seven out of ten Wisconsinites support accepting federal funds to fully expand BadgerCare in order to cover more low-income adults.

Wisconsin is one of only 14 states that has not yet decided to expand Medicaid. Both red and blue states have taken advantage of the federal funding from the Affordable Care Act to cover people who need access to affordable health insurance. Wisconsin’s decision to only partially expand BadgerCare has cost state tax payers more than $1 billion and leaves thousands in our state uninsured. We pay millions more per year to cover fewer people.

Expanding BadgerCare would mean about 80,000 thousand more people would be covered, and we would save hundreds of millions over the next two-year budget period. Governor Evers’ proposed budget expands BadgerCare and puts the savings back into the Medicaid program to pay for critical investments in our health care system, such as addressing racial disparities in maternal and infant health and increasing access to mental health and substance use treatment.

Implementation of the Affordable Care Act resulted in significant coverage gains for people of all Wisconsinites, regardless of race or ethnicity, but coverage rates for people of color still lag behind those for white people. Native Americans and Latinx Wisconsinites are uninsured at rates nearly triple that of white Wisconsinites. Fully expanding BadgerCare should help to reduce those disparities.

For years Wisconsinites have been in favor of expanding BadgerCare, and support has been increasing. This month the Marquette University Law School poll found that seven out of ten Wisconsinites favored expanding BadgerCare with only 23 percent against. Support for BadgerCare expansion went far beyond people who identified as liberal. In fact, those identified as “very conservative” were the only group not supportive of expanding BadgerCare.  Everyone else, from “very liberal” to “conservative” favored fully expanding BadgerCare to 138% of the federal poverty level, which is a little over $17,000 per year for a single adult or $23,300 for a parent with one child.

Right now in our state a single adult with a full-time minimum wage job makes too much money to qualify for BadgerCare. A single parent with one child who makes only $8.15 per hour is too “rich” to qualify for BadgerCare. People are struggling. It’s often too much to balance the costs for housing, food, transportation, and healthcare, and the costs of health care keep going up.

BadgerCare will provide comprehensive, affordable health care for individuals and families who are struggling to make ends meet. It’s the right thing to do for Wisconsin families. It’s also the right thing to do for our bottom line, and 70% of Wisconsinites support it.

William Parke-Sutherland