With the U.S. House of Representatives proposing $880 billion in cuts to the federal budget, substantial impacts to Medicaid and other health programs are unavoidable. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) has started to analyze how these cuts might impact Medicaid members and providers in our state, including shifting costs to Wisconsin, slashing the Medicaid budget, and making services harder to access for working adults, and increasing costs to Wisconsin taxpayers.
“Wisconsin’s Medicaid program is an essential part of our state’s health care and public health systems and economy,” said Wisconsin Medicaid Director Bill Hanna. “Simply put, we can’t have a healthy and strong Wisconsin without a healthy and strong Medicaid program. Massive cuts like those proposed by Congress would put our people, our health care system, and our economy at risk.”
Medicaid in Wisconsin goes by many names, including BadgerCare Plus, Family Care, IRIS (Include, Respect, I Self-Direct), Katie Beckett, Family Care Partnership, PACE (Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly), and Children’s Long-Term Support (CLTS) Waiver Program. Wisconsin’s Medicaid program provides health insurance benefits to people aged 0-64. Medicaid covers 20% of all Wisconsinites, including 40% of births, 38% of children, and 60% of people in nursing homes. BadgerCare Plus is the state’s largest Medicaid program, with roughly 1 million members, and covers preventive care, urgent and emergency visits, vaccinations, prescriptions, and more.
