State Will Lose Another $1.6 Billion by Not Improving BadgerCare. --BECAUSE Repugs are mean

[riversedge]

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UpNorthNews [e-mail] via gmail.mcsv.net

1:03 PM (8 minutes ago)

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Friday, May 7, 2021
GOP Lawmakers Formally Slash Hundreds of Evers' Budget Ideas. State Will Lose Another $1.6 Billion by Not Improving BadgerCare.

The Legislature’s Republican-led Joint Finance Committee’s vote Thursday to slash $3.4 billion from Gov. Tony Evers’ proposed 2021-23 state budget would leave the state without much-needed services if at least some of those provisions aren’t added back, supporters of those measures said.

The committee eliminated nearly 400 measures proposed by the Democratic governor, cutting a broad range of proposed programs that would address a wide range of needs supporters said must be addressed sooner than later.

The committee’s largest budget reduction was the elimination of a proposed expansion of the state’s BadgerCare Plus insurance program. It would provide health insurance coverage to an additional 90,000 people in the state, and accepting the federal Medicaid money to pay for the program would have netted the state $1.6 billion during the next two years.

“I’ve been just so frustrated with this state’s stance,” Marnie Hersrud, an Eau Claire resident, said of the state Legislature’s repeated refusal to accept federal Medicaid money to pay for a BadgerCare expansion. "You would think after all these years, and after other states—and Republican states—that have signed on, that we would too."

Instead of proceeding with the governor’s proposed budget, the Joint Finance Committee will form the next budget from the current one, which was largely written by Republican lawmakers in 2019 and altered by Evers through a series of vetoes. The committee will continue work on the state’s two-year budget in upcoming weeks before forwarding its recommendations to the full Legislature.

—Reported by Christina Lieffring and Julian Emerson

[LakeArenal]

1. Wisconsin remains Wiskochistan.

The Repukes are gerrymander in the state legislature for life, I’m afraid.

[dutch777]

2. Gerrymandering at its zenith for sure. Sad thing is not only the people Medicaid expansion would

help that will get hurt, but for many smaller and rural hospitals, as low as Medicaid payments are, they can make the difference in staying open or having to go bankrupt and close. We are really rolling much of rural America back to the dark ages of medical care when your closest emergency room is two hours or more away in good weather and maybe not reachable in bad winter weather. That isn't only the Medicaid patient, that is everyone in these increasingly large medically underserved areas.

[LakeArenal]

3. I think most areas in WI are within two hours of an emergency room.

But....

Ours was half hour. Rushing to the hospital, called 911 to inform Emergency we were on the way.

911 operator says we don’t do that. Please call the hospital. 🙄

Generally I found our rural clinics to be great. But I’m only familiar with Stevens Point on down.

[SmartVoter22]

4. Stupid is as stupid does

and the Wisconsin republican is as stupid as it gets.
We have some of the most ill-informed, backward focused electeds whose only obsession is teenaged female sexual functions and how to criminalize a body part.
(think Rep.Andre Jacques and the other evangelical Repugs).

By not taking federal grants, we still have the costs and expenses and will have to pay for them. Or we could take the $1.6 Billion and provide services taxpayers expect.

Vote out the GOP in 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 and we might se a state resemble something in a 12 step program.

[SmartVoter22]

5. Gov Evers: Fight for this, loudly & daily.

Wisconsin cannot afford to miss this grant funding. It helps every citizen and provide a major initiative in expanding a lower death rate, a faster resolution to common illnesses.
Please flood the media with this bill and target those who've spoken out against it.
Thanks
A Wisconsin Voter since Nov 1972