Initial Reaction to Walker Decision to Turn Down Medicaid Money

Milwaukee: At a news conference in Madison this afternoon Governor Scott Walker announced his plans to turn down billions of dollars in new federal Medicaid money to fill the holes in Wisconsin’s BadgerCare program.

Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, had the following initial response:

“While we are still waiting for more details on Governor Walker’s proposal, we are very concerned that it is merely a smokescreen for a short-sighted decision that puts politics and ideology above the health of the people of Wisconsin. Walker says his alternative to the Medicaid expansion will result in 224,6000 more people being covered. Even if this claim pans out, it is far less than the original analysis of the impact of the health care law on Wisconsin which concluded 340,000 more people would be covered. Pending more details, that would be a dramatic reduction in the benefit of the health care law in Wisconsin. We are very concerned that Walker’s plan leaves billions of federal dollars on the table that could be used to guarantee affordable health care to tens of thousands of additional Wisconsinites.”

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.

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