WC Wisconsin News

Wisconsin state Sen. Chris Larson doesn’t mince words when it comes to pointing to what he sees as shortfalls in the state’s healthcare system.

“It still boggles my mind that Wisconsin could cover 126,000 more people under BadgerCare while increasing state revenue by $1.3 billion and legislative Republicans are like "Nah" year after year,” Larson recently posted on Twitter. “When people can't afford health insurance, we all pay for it. Cruelty is expensive.”

Larson isn’t alone in wanting to see the system work to the benefit of more residents, with a recent poll commissioned by the American Cancer Society finding that 70% of Wisconsin voters support expanding BadgerCare.

And while Wisconsin Watch reports the Wisconsin Department of Health Services estimates that the number of newly added people that would benefit from the program being expended would be closer to 90,000, officials add the 2023-25 biennial budget projects that the expansion would enroll about 61,100 parents and 28,600 adults without children.

Since taking office in 2019, Gov. Tony Evers has fought hard for expansion under the federal Affordable Care Act, noting that the state is now one of just 11 that has not expanded Medicaid coverage to 138% of the poverty level as allowed by law.