By Senator Dora Drake
Senator Dora Drake (D) Wisconsin
For weeks, time and time again, the Trump Administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have announced cuts to federal spending under the guise of saving taxpayer dollars. However, under this surface lies a plot to cut healthcare via Medicaid, endangering millions of lives under the careless and irresponsible leadership of President Trump, Elon Musk, and Republicans; leaving our state to foot the bill that we already paid for with federal taxes. As a new member of the Senate Health Committee, these actions undermine the programs designed to keep our community healthy and significantly impact the state budget needed to maintain these services, especially as I, along with Senate Democrats, work to expand them.
Medicaid is a joint federal and state program that helps cover medical costs for the most vulnerable— oftentimes low-income workers, families, and elderly or disabled Wisconsinites. This works because the federal government provides funds and rules for the program, and states administer the program. As of last August, over 1.2 million Wisconsinites are enrolled in the state Medicaid program known to us as BadgerCare, which many rely on of which 68% of all Medicaid enrollees are workers. By the numbers, 33% of all children in our state rely on this program, along with 35% of mothers giving birth and their newborns, 45.5% of working-age adults with disabilities, and 55% of people living in nursing homes. Medicaid also constitutes 47% of the revenue of all Wisconsin community health centers, providing more locations for residents to seek health care.
While this program serves many, the federal government provides the most significant funding for us to administer the program and a vital income for our state budget. In 2023, the federal government provided $8.5 billion to our state’s Medicaid program, which was 43% of all federal funding our state received. This is only the surface-level funding our state could receive and those we can cover under our program.
For years, healthcare advocates and Wisconsin Democrats have long advocated for the expansion of BadgerCare by accepting the expansion for Medicaid. The expansion would not only provide more coverage for working families but also provide more funds for our state. Currently, for every dollar of Medicaid that is spent, the federal government covers 60 cents to the dollar, and we cover 40 cents. If we were to finally accept the federal money to expand BadgerCare, they would pay for 90% of the costs plus a net gain of $1.1 billion over two years from the American Rescue Plan.
Republicans have always been the barrier to expanding this program in Wisconsin, and now their leadership in the White House and Congress is trying to gut the program. In the State Legislature, we have made progress to expand BadgerCare for women postpartum, which would expand coverage from 60 days postpartum to a full year. However, even though this has received vast bipartisan support, Republican leadership has failed to pass this through the State Legislature and has retracted expansion efforts from every single budget proposal Governor Evers has provided to the legislature.
At the end of the day, this is a program we pay for as taxpayers, and it works. When we refuse to expand Medicaid or when Republicans and DOGE cut funding for the program, we are not getting our hard-earned money back – we’re actually losing it. Ever since Obamacare provided us the opportunity to expand BadgerCare, your money went somewhere else because Wisconsin Republicans said “no.” Now Trump, Elon, and DOGE want to do the same thing at the federal level and put your hard-earned money somewhere else.
Yes, the government can do a better job making things work better and more efficiently, but BadgerCare is a program that has proved itself to be a working and efficient program that many Wisconsinites love and appreciate. For years, my colleagues and I have heard positive feedback about the program from both Wisconsinites and providers. Their only request has been that we accept the federal Medicaid expansion. No one has ever said this program does not work. Cutting this program would jeopardize many in our state and drastically impact our state budget and economy, but that doesn’t have to be the solution. We must unite to oppose the Trump Administration’s cuts and expand Medicaid in our state budget now—lives depend on it, and this is our last chance.