Editorial: Track Down Those Who Lost BadgerCare

As part of its response to Obamacare's Medicaid expansion plan, the state added people at or below the poverty level to its BadgerCare program who had been on a waiting list. At the same time, it knocked off people above the poverty level who had been getting BadgerCare.

The thinking, according to Gov. Scott Walker, is that nearly all of those people would get their health insurance through the federal exchange, with the help of federal subsidies.

That's not exactly how it turned out. According to the state Department of Health Services, it has identified 38,000 people who lost BadgerCare but didn't get insurance through the exchange.

As a result, Sen. Tammy Baldwin asked the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services to offer a special extended enrollment period for those people. And it has — those people now have until Nov. 2 to sign up. A state Department of Health Services spokeswoman said the department would send letters to them to let them know about the extended enrollment period.

At the same time, the state should ask them why they haven't already signed up.

It could be one of several reasons: they got a job that had insurance; they were confused by the process; even with a subsidy, premiums on the exchange are too expensive; or they simply didn't want insurance.

But since the state kicked them off BadgerCare under the assumption that they'd go to the exchange, the state has the responsibility to find out why they didn't.

We need to know what happened to these people — and now there's a great opportunity to find out.