Madison – Representative Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee), chairman of the Assembly Committee on Health and Healthcare Reform and member of the Joint Committee on Finance, appeared Monday, Dec. 27 on the PBS Newshour in a report on how Wisconsin is implementing the federal health reform legislation.
The story stressed the need to go forward with reform making healthcare more accessible and less expensive to Wisconsin citizens. It also focused on the concerted effort in the state capitol to hold on to the status quo with health care and block reform.
Based on briefings from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, Richards warned that stalling health reform could cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid and cutting back on BadgerCare services could cost the state the roughly $4 billion per year in lost federal aid if Wisconsin fails to maintain eligibility standards it has agreed with the federal government to meet.
