The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill early this morning that, as currently stands, would cut more than $790 billion from the Medicaid program over the next 10 years and result in more than 7 million people losing their health insurance coverage through Medicaid. This would be the largest ever cut to Medicaid, and Wisconsin will be impacted.
With any federal funding cuts to Medicaid, decision-makers in Wisconsin will have to make choices from four options: 1) change who can (or can’t) get care, 2) change what care people can get, 3) change how much people get paid to provide that care, or 4) use additional state dollars to keep care the same. An initial analysis of this bill indicated that if the Medicaid provisions applied to Wisconsin’s 2024 Medicaid program, the state would have lost $400 million in federal funding and between 50,000 and 83,000 Wisconsinites would have lost health insurance coverage through Medicaid.
Wisconsin’s Medicaid program supports 1.2 million (18% of) Wisconsinites who rely on Medicaid for health, mental health, and in-home or facility based long term care, including:
- 1 in 3 Wisconsin children
- 1 in 3 Wisconsinites with disabilities
- 1 in 6 Medicare beneficiaries in Wisconsin
- 4 in 7 Wisconsin nursing home residents
- 40% of births in Wisconsin
A statement from The Arc Fond du Lac, a Wisconsin Medicaid Coalition participant, says, “Currently nearly 80% of our funding for the housing, day service, youth respite/summer camp, and community enrichment for our membership comes from Medicaid. We believe this bill will reduce the support we as an agency can provide, ultimately hurting ‘the most vulnerable’which Congress has told us time and time again would not be affected. Our 300 plus members’ health, homes, and safety are on the line, as well as our nearly 100 staff that live our mission every day.”
Susan Townsley, LSCW, a clinic director at a mental health clinic in rural Wisconsin and Wisconsin Medicaid Coalition participant, states, “Seventy percent of our clients rely on Medicaid for their healthcare. We are already in a moment where there is a mental health crisis, especially for our youth. Prevention is way less expensive than incarceration and hospitalization. It would be short-sighted and costly to make any cuts to Medicaid.”
The Wisconsin Medicaid Coalition has approximately 300 participants from more than 150 entities, including counties, tribes, health care providers, advocates, and those representing impacted populations, concerned about the impact of major changes to Medicaid being considered at the federal level.
Contacts:
- Janet Zander, Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources, Inc.,
janet.zander@gwaar.org - Lisa Hassenstab, Disability Rights Wisconsin, lisah@drwi.org
- Tami Jackson, Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities,
Tamara.jackson@wisconsin.gov - William Parke-Sutherland, Kids Forward, wparkesutherland@kidsforward.org
