Wisconsin Lawmakers Halt Medicaid Expansion

Despite repeated attempts by Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers to expand Medicaid in the Badger State, state lawmakers have defeated the bad idea, once again.

Medicaid expansion is nothing more than a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Yes, it is enticing to offer more government goodies with so called “free federal money.” But, the reality is that Medicaid expansion is only a temporary “solution” to a much bigger problem. Moreover, when states take the bait to boost their budgets temporarily, taxpayers are left on the hook over the long-term.

Like many states, Wisconsin Democrats have been pushing for Medicaid expansion for years. Such is why on May 19, Gov. Evers called for a special session to expand Medicaid. Perhaps Evers was optimistic his scheme would work this time because the federal government is offering increased Medicaid expansion payouts under the COVID-19 stimulus package.

If passed, this would have expanded Wisconsin’s welfare rolls substantially. According to some reports, had Wisconsin gone forward with Medicaid expansion, 91,000 new Wisconsinites would have been eligible for the state’s Medicaid program, known as BadgerCare Plus.

Furthermore, because the federal funding is not permanent—it would only be guaranteed for two years—tens of thousands would leave the private sector insurance market to jump ship to a state-based system that is severely underfunded.

The problem, from a budgetary standpoint, is twofold. For starters, it’s simply not free money. Every dollar spent by Washington is a dollar earned somewhere else. It matters not that the dollar was earned in Idaho, it is still a dollar extracted from taxpayers who are already shouldering a $28 trillion national debt. It is fundamentally immoral to continue to promise an entitlement when funding is not guaranteed in out-years and will necessarily require either cuts to the entitlement or additional debt load.

The second and related problem is the fungibility of money in a state government budget. Infusing a state budget with federal dollars allows politicians to channel funds that would otherwise be spent on low-income health care provisions and redirect them to other priorities, say, K-12 education. In the (likely) event that the federal dollars evaporate per the point above, then in out-years, you again will have to make deep cuts to cover the now-gone federal dollars. The domino effect doesn’t stop at the first shortfall but will ripple throughout the entire state budget.

The GOP in Wisconsin knows this. Gov. Evers knows this. The difference is that Evers is using it as a present-day and future political cudgel. And it’s gross, reckless, and immoral.

Fortunately, Republicans scoffed at Evers’ request and quickly shot down the latest push for Medicaid expansion. Republican Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke and Senate President Chris Kapenga said in a joint statement, “This is a thinly-veiled political maneuver.”

The decision to expand Medicaid in Wisconsin is poor public policy and unnecessary. Wisconsin does not currently have a large health care coverage gap. And low-income residents are already eligible for Medicaid or Obamacare in Wisconsin. Expanding Medicaid would simply shift a huge number of Wisconsinites onto a government program that is severely underfunded.

The negative impacts of expanding Medicaid are already causing major problems for several states. A recent study of Medicaid expansion in Arizona by the Goldwater Institute notes, “Prior to Medicaid expansion in Arizona, cost-shifting to private payers to offset underpayments and losses from Medicaid and the uninsured amounted to 14 percent more than the hospitals’ costs, or around $1.4 billion in 2007. In 2016, three years into expansion, the costs funded by private payers increased to around 27 percent above hospitals costs, or approximately $2.1 billion.”

Forcing Americans on private health care to subsidize the costs of Medicaid expansion is unfair and only skews the dysfunctional health care market even more. State lawmakers should continue to resist Medicaid expansion and consider actual free-market solutions instead.

Thankfully, Wisconsin Republicans killed Medicaid expansion again. However, the left’s push for more government intervention in health care never stops. Medicaid expansion is merely a steppingstone to full-fledged government-run health care.

Our health care is one of the most personal and consequential aspects of our lives. After the past year of dealing with the pandemic, I, like many Americans, want government as far away from my health care as possible.

Under “expanded” Medicaid, wealth, possessions etc no longer matter. Income is the only criteria. West Virginia went for it whole hog. As long as their income was low enough, they could keep their house, real estate, car, boat, whatever. But people don’t realize that WV, like ALL states, has a “Medicaid reimbursement” law in some form or other. It allows the state to collect from the estates of deceased citizens in order to repay any Medicaid assistance that citizen may have accepted. Few (if any) states now enforce that law, but when the Fed funds run out and if/when the federal gov. decides that it will only reimburse states for 50% of Medicaid costs (as the plan was originally designed) you can rest assured that state legislators will “re-discover” this law.

thanks. we had to walk a whacky line to protect assets from Medicaid seizures when estate planning.

In Illinois, you cannot qualify for Medicaid unless you have less than $14,400.00 in countable resources.

Countable assets include cash, stocks, bonds, investments, IRAs, credit union, savings, and checking accounts, and real estate in which one does not reside.

However, for Medicaid eligibility, there are many assets that are considered exempt (non-countable). Exemptions include personal belongings, household furnishings, an automobile, irrevocable burial trusts, and one’s primary home, given the Medicaid applicant lives in it and his / her equity interest is under $603,000 (in 2021)

For Medicaid eligibility purposes, any income that a Medicaid applicant receives is counted. To clarify, this income can come from any source. Examples include employment wages, alimony payments, pension payments, Social Security Disability Income, Social Security Income, IRA withdrawals, and stock dividends.

Thank Governor Scott Walker (R, WI) who took a LOT of arrows for us in his eight years in office, and gave us a strong, Conservative House and Assembly (Senate) that can bat down whatever costly stupidity the Socialist Democrats throw at, ‘We The People’ of Wisconsin!

Each state’s rules for Medicaid are different, but I gauran-damn-tee you the majority of those that jumped on the expanded Medicaid bandwagon did so with absolutely no thought about estate planning. Here in WV many folks worked at jobs mainly for the medical insurance. Once Zerocare came in, they dropped those jobs and went on the dole while doing under the table gigs for gas, beer and cigarette money. Others took jobs with no benefits but decent wages which allowed them to continue living at or above the standard they were used to. The heirs of those working class citizens are the ones who are gonna get creamed.

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