Board Passes Medical Debt Relief, Health Insurance Subsidy

Milwaukee County Courthouse. Photo by Graham Kilmer.

The Milwaukee County Board approved three significant pieces of legislation Thursday at its monthly meeting.

It approved a resolution that aims to abolish $153 million in medical debt for county residents and also subsidize health care premiums for residents kicked off Medicaid; a resolution that allocates approximately $100,000 in funding toward housing for low-income MATC students; and a resolution condemning conversion therapy, a widely discredited practice related to gender identity.

Medical Debt

Sup. Shawn Rolland authored a resolution that will have the county partner with the non-profit RIP Medical Debt and use approximately $1.6 million of the county’s federal stimulus funds to purchase and abolish approximately $153 million worth of debt.

RIP Medical Debt will take the funding and work with the local healthcare systems to purchase bundles of delinquent medical debt at pennies on the dollar, then void it.

Before the board voted, Rolland told his colleagues: “We are one vote away from abolishing $153 million of residents’ medical for 63,000 residents who are struggling with this crushing debt in their eyes.”

“There are a lot of people in this county that are living paycheck to paycheck; there are a lot of people that are struggling, we have a mission in this county to be the healthiest county in Wisconsin,” Rolland said. “And a huge obstacle to that goal is people’s willingness to go see their doctor because they are fearful that if they go to their doctor again they’ll get in trouble because of the debt they already have on their books.”

Earlier this month, Rolland successfully amended his resolution to include a provision that set aside $500,000 of the county’s federal stimulus funds to pay insurance premiums for county residents who are kicked off of Medicaid. In May, as many as 90,000 county residents could be kicked off of Medicaid when the federal emergency declaration that allowed residents to remain on Medicaid without re-enrolling expires. The subsidy would be applied to health insurance plans purchased on the federally-subsidized marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act.

The board passed the resolution on a 15-2 vote, with supervisors Patti Logsdon and Steve Taylor in opposition. Logsdon said she did not support the resolution because she did not think it would help many residents with their credit ratings. She also didn’t like that it would not provide relief to all county residents that have debt.

Student Housing Insecurity

A resolution authored by Sup. Steven Shea will see the county put $100,000 from the county’s rainy-day account into a fund that helps Milwaukee Area Technical College students pay for their education. The resolution would direct the managers of the fund to save the county’s dollars for students that are seeking help with housing insecurity.

“I am, full disclosure, a member of MATC faculty, I have had students who were literally homeless; they come from a homeless shelter to class each day,” Shea said. “I can’t imagine what studying is like at night in a homeless shelter, but they do it.”

The Faculty and Students Together (FAST) Fund was created by the MATC teachers’ union AFT Local 212. It provides no-strings-attached assistance to MATC students struggling to pay for their education.

“These people, a lot of them are single mothers,” Shea said. “They are doing what they can, to better their circumstances to provide for their families. They’re not asking for a handout, just a little hand-up so that they can get jobs, join the workforce and become taxpayers. This is a win-win-win.”

The board passed the resolution on a 16-1 vote, with only Taylor in opposition. Taylor said he did not support the resolution because of the source of the funding and the county’s dire financial situation.

Conversion Therapy Condemnation

A resolution authored by Sup. Peter Burgelis will make it the official position of Milwaukee County, once signed by the county executive, to condemn the practice of conversion therapy.

“Studies show that conversion ‘therapy’ leads to increased rates of depression, anxiety, and even suicide, and we must take a stand against it,” Burgelis said in a statement. “Lives depend on it.”

Conversion therapy is a widely discredited practice that attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity. It has been rejected by a number of major national medical groups like the American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, American College of Physicians and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

One day before the board voted on Burgelis’ condemnation resolution, the Republican-controlled state Senate voted to block an attempt at banning conversion therapy in Wisconsin.

The board voted 14-3 to pass the resolution, with supervisors Logsdon, Taylor and Deanna Alexander in opposition.