Here & Now

Will Wisconsin Expand Medicaid?

Frederica Freyberg:
Newly-elected Governor Tony Evers met with Republican leaders this week to move on one of his biggest campaign promises, expanding Medicaid. Zac Schultz reports.

Zac Schultz:
The bipartisan pledge to be more bipartisan had its first test this week. When Governor Tony Evers was invited to a joint Senate and Assembly Republican caucus meeting. The Republicans met the Democratic governor with applause and then questions about the budget, specifically whether he planned to ask for the federal money available for the expansion of Medicaid.

Robin Vos:
Expanding government-run healthcare is a non-starter too.

Zac Schultz:
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos says they would prefer Governor Evers not even put expansion in his budget.

Robin Vos:
Don’t pick things that you know have no chance of passing just to score political points.

Zac Schultz:
But Evers campaigned on expanding Medicaid and says taking the federal money will free up state money to pay for other things.

Tony Evers:
Were not going to burn the Capitol down here. We’re going to disagree.

Zac Schultz:
An analysis by the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated if the state had taken the expansion in 2016, that through 2021 it would have brought in $3 billion in federal dollars for healthcare, and freed up $1 billion in state money. Instead, Governor Walker opted to expand BadgerCare and reject the federal dollars. Governor Evers says that hurts small town healthcare providers the most, areas largely represented by Republicans.

Tony Evers:
If Republican legislators who come from small town Wisconsin that understand that the success of those small town hospitals and clinics depend upon having access to greater resources, they may change their mind. So we’re going to take this directly to the people of Wisconsin in a respectful way.

Zac Schultz:
But Vos says expansion would hurt the private insurance market.

Robin Vos:
Every person that’s on BadgerCare is subsidized by somebody who’s in the private insurance market. So the more people that we take from the private insurance market to put into the public market, the higher the rates are going to go for those people who have private sector insurance. So granted, there might be a short one-time savings for the state, but that is more than offset by the cost in the private sector for what they have to pay to subsidize those people who are already on BadgerCare.

Frederica Freyberg:
That was Zac Schultz reporting. Tension between the governor and the Republican majority was sparked even before the Evers inauguration during the so-called lame duck session. That’s when Republicans passed measures that included a bill that put new limits on early voting in Wisconsin. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge James Peterson struck down those limitations in a ruling on a lawsuit brought by One Wisconsin Now. He said the voting restrictions mirrored limits that he declared unconstitutional in 2016. Governor Evers will present his State of the State address next Tuesday, January 22. Tune in to live coverage of the speech on Wisconsin Public Television and Radio starting at 7:00 p.m.