Legislatively Speaking
By Senator, Lena C. Taylor
Lena C. Taylor
Governor Scott Walker gave his budget proposal on Tuesday February 3rd.
The most prominent budget cut is on Senior- Care. Walker is looking to cut $15 million from the SeniorCare program. Many are looking to petition this cut.
State representative Andy Jorgensen is one of the many outraged by this cut.
Jorgensen is launching a ‘Save SeniorCare’ Petition drive to allow the people of Wisconsin to voice their opinions about this cut. With this cut in place seniors will have to enroll in Medicare part D.
This is a comparable medicine care program to SeniorCare, but many users find it hard to use and more expensive. SeniorCare provides low cost prescription medications to seniors.
The first level of SeniorCare only asks its members to pay a $30 annual enrollment fee and then they get a $5 copay on generic prescription medications.
This was originally implemented to help seniors pay for medications and not have to pick between buying groceries and buying medications.
This is the second time that walker has tried to cut the SeniorCare budget. In 2011 he proposed to cut SeniorCare and was swiftly met with vast disagreement. Jorgensen launched a petition in 2011 as well to fight the cuts.
“They say history repeats itself, but never in a million years did I think we’d be fighting this battle again,” said Jorgensen.
It seems that Walker is back for round two in the fight to cut SeniorCare in 2015.
According to Jorgensen in 2009 the average cost to support a SeniorCare enrollee was $588 a year, less than half the $1,690 cost to subsidize a Part D participant.
Jorgensen said that 85 thousand people over the age of 65 are on SeniorCare. They are dependent on the medications that they receive at discounted pricing. Many are outraged at the budget proposal and Jorgensen is leading the crowd.
“SeniorCare saves lives and it saves us all money. It’s one of those rare ‘win-wins’,” said Jorgensen. “I will do everything in my power to keep it up and running.”
Jorgensen is urging Wisconsinites to step-up on this issue. You can request a petition sheet by emailing Rep. Jorgensen at rep. jorgensen@legis.wi.gov or by calling his office at (608) 266-3790.
Walker stuck to his word when he said that he was going to cut government spending in 2015.
Now Wisconsinites have to ask what they are willing to give up.