U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin Calls on Governor Walker to Report on his Transition of 62,776 Wisconsinites off BadgerCare and into Affordable Care Act Marketplace

Washington D.C. – U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin today called on Governor Scott Walker to publically release the results of his plan to remove 62,776 Wisconsinites from BadgerCare and move them seamlessly to coverage in the Affordable Care Act’s Health Insurance Marketplace. 

In a letter to Walker today, Baldwin said, “According to your latest figures, as a result of the plan you pursued, almost 63,000 vulnerable Wisconsinites will be losing their BadgerCare coverage.  However, the announcement on Monday, May 19th fails to tell the people of Wisconsin the most significant effect of your plan: the number of former BadgerCare recipients who you have transitioned to coverage in the federal Marketplace. Without this information, Wisconsin taxpayers cannot hold you accountable to your promise to use Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act Marketplace to cut Wisconsin’s uninsured rate in half.”

On Monday, the Walker Administration announced that 62,776 Wisconsinites were being kicked out of Wisconsin’s BadgerCare program as result of the plan put in place by the Governor and State Legislature.

Walker has rejected a federal investment in Wisconsin’s BadgerCare program through the Affordable Care Act. In contrast, Governors in Midwestern states including Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio have accepted a federal investment to expand health care coverage in their states.

“Your decision to reject the federal investment in our BadgerCare program put health coverage for thousands of Wisconsinites at risk, and I continue to be concerned that your plan, which covers fewer people at a higher cost to taxpayers, will result in people becoming uninsured,” Baldwin said, “To ensure that your plan will not create a gap in coverage for Wisconsin, it is critical that we know if the nearly 63,000 of our fellow citizens have seamlessly transitioned from BadgerCare to the Marketplace before the end of the month.”

Walker’s administration has previously said they will not release numbers on the 62,776 Wisconsinites they are removing from BadgerCare until after the May 30 deadline for the former BadgerCare recipients to obtain private health coverage in the federal Marketplace. However, in her letter to Walker, Senator Baldwin said, “It is imperative that the public be provided an immediate report on how many of these Wisconsinites your Administration has transitioned to the Marketplace to date.  As you know, you signed an agreement with the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to establish mechanisms for tracking the nearly 63,000 individuals who were forced to transition from BadgerCare to Marketplace coverage.  Now that CMS has provided you with the data needed to report on these individuals, I look forward to the prompt release of these results.”