The dust is settling after passage
of the federal tax and spending
reconciliation bill, which is now
law.
What stands out for its impact in
Wisconsin?
We turn to Democratic U.S.
Representative Gwen Moore of
Milwaukee for her take on
what it means for people in her
district.
And thanks so much for being here.
Always good to be with you,
Friedrich.
So what does stand out for its
impact in your district and across
Wisconsin?
Well, I think that the thing that
is most outstanding in this bill
is the impact that will have
on health care, on
the Medicaid cuts,
Badger Care, as we call it in
Wisconsin,
the Affordable Care Act,
Obamacare cuts, and
when you combine the work
requirements to
receive Medicaid.
And when you, the confluence
of all those forces means that
they'll probably be something
like 276,000
people in Wisconsin who
will not receive
any kind of health care.
And when, just
the work requirements themselves
will cost 68,000
individuals with
no dependence to lose
health care.
And so the theory of the case
is that these are just lazy
boys in their mama's
basements playing video games,
and there'd be no harm and
no foul to cut them off.
Notwithstanding the fact we believe
this is not a real person, this is
just a trope, we're
saying that in Wisconsin, a
person who, say, has
two minimum wage jobs
working at a fast food restaurant,
they will.
At minimum wage,
working full time, they will
make too much money to be
eligible for Medicaid.
So they'll be thrown, whether they
work or not, they won't
receive Medicaid.
And then there are numbers of people
who are truly eligible.
They have children, they're already
working. Most people who receive
Medicaid are already working,
but the numbers of
the bureaucracy and the paperwork.
That they have added into
the bill is really
something that they have monetized.
They have monetize people's
mistakes so that if you don't
re-up or
come in every six months
to reconfirm
that you're still disabled or
that you will find yourself off
Medicaid.
And then those of you remember,
about, Frederica, Wisconsin was
one of those states, I believe it
was about 11 states.
That hadn't taken advantage of the
expansion of the Affordable
Care Act.
And those people will see their
premiums go eight,
nine times the
amount that they're currently
paying. So say for example,
they were able to get a silver plan
and for the purposes of keeping
the math simple of $100
a month, they might find
themselves with six, seven,
$800 a month.
Health care payment premiums
in order to stay on the program,
and thereby, of course,
being disenrolled because
it's unaffordable.
And I think one of the
other things that's going to happen
is that people who do
have employer-provided
health care will find
their premiums going up.
In Wisconsin,
the payer mix
of people.
You know, you have Medicare payments
and Medicaid payments and
private payers, and less
than 30 percent of
the patient mix consists
of people who are
funded through their employers or
through government work.
And those premiums as well
will go up.
And what we will find is that people
will be much sicker.
We also see some real
Big hits.
In the education area.
Our calculation is that about
$72 million
will be taken from Wisconsin
with regard to Title
I programs, reading programs,
and so on, really big hit
in that area.
And of course,
food supplements.
We're thinking that
the food share cuts,
snap cuts, not only
will it cost
thousands, hundreds of thousands
of people to be cut off food share,
but it would also mean that the
state itself would
have to pay 75
percent of the administrative costs
of the food stamp
program, the SNAP program,
as well as if
there are error rates
in excess of 6 percent,
they'll find themselves having to
pay. Uh, for portions
of the food stamp program,
which today that
burden has never been an unfunded
mandate that will be
placed on not only Wisconsin, but
statewide. So it is
really a bad bill.
One of the things that I didn't
mention about healthcare
is that our hospital
association is
very concerned about this
because there
is a provision in
law. Or providers,
hospitals, pay a
provider fee, which
enables them to draw down more
federal funds.
Well, the federal government is
sort of curtailing the
ability of
states to have hope,
to bring down federal dollars
so as to reduce the amount
of federal dollars available.
It's a hot mess in one
sentence.
Let me just back up a little bit and
talk about health care and Medicaid,
and people who fall off
Medicaid because of
the provisions of this bill and
potentially the burdensome of
paperwork, what
will they do for health care then?
Like I said, people will continue
to work, as
I indicated before,
about 40
percent of people in the country
don't have
employer-based
health care.
And I mean, people work in all kinds
of industries. They work for fast
food, they work for farms,
some of them are entrepreneurs,
some people or gig jobs.
And people work for small,
very teeny tiny, small businesses
that don't provide
employer insurance.
They'll be working and they'll have
no health insurance.
That will increase the amount of
uncompensated care that
hospitals have to pick up.
And it also means that
hospitals will have to make
decisions about what kind of
health care they will or will not
provide.
We've seen in the past,
just recently, in our own community,
maternity wards closing,
where hospitals will decide we
aren't going to do cardiac
catheterizations anymore.
Community health
centers may
close or merge.
Uh, in order to keep
going. And we do know
that this bill also
defunds any kind of clinic
that provides any sort of
abortion care or counseling or,
uh, about, uh
birth control.
And so we'll see
Planned Parenthood clinics closing
and other clinics that may provide
that kind of healthcare clothes
as well.
One of the things is, is that, you
know, the president predicts
that people won't even pay any
attention, they won't ever notice.
Some of these provisions don't
come into effect until
after the 2026
election.
But that doesn't mean that hospitals
won't have to start planning how
to not deliver services now,
because, in fact,
276,000.
People in Wisconsin will lose
care out of the 17 million,
minimally, nationally, they will
lose health care.
Now, in the state budget just
passed, it increased these provider
taxes or fees to
6%, which
delivers, I understand, 1 billion
more federal Medicaid dollars to
Wisconsin.
So how heads up do you think
that was, having served yourself on
the Joint Finance Committee here in
the State of Wisconsin?
How heads up for the legislature
and governor to pass the state just
ahead?
Of the passage of this
reconciliation bill to get that
kind of extra federal money because
of raising this fee on
providers.
I'll tell you, I did have
communication by phone with
leadership in the
Democratic caucus.
And they were trying to figure out
when the one
big, beautiful bill was going to
pass, and they were literally racing
to get the
votes and to pass it before we
did.
And you know, asking me,
well, isn't there a 72-hour
rule, because I testified before the
rules could be, I said, kind of
wave.
In any reading of
the bill for 72 hours,
you had better hustle and get that
provision passed.
Because otherwise, I think that they
have reduced those provider
tax benefits down to
less than 2%
so that the state, even though
they're willing providers, the
state won't be able to access,
as you indicated, that billion
dollars that Wisconsin really
is gonna rely on.
To take care of the most needy and
I think there are certain
mandatory services that
Medicaid will have to pay for,
like the people in nursing homes.
Perhaps we will continue
to take care of children and
hospital admissions, but everything
else will be on the table.
Rides to dialysis,
home, you know,
elders being able to get care
in their homes when
they're eligible and
when they don't need nursing home
care. All that will be on a chopping
block and the state will have
to make some hard decisions.
You touched on education funding,
and we know that the Trump
administration is apparently
making good on its promise to
dismantle the U.S.
Department of Education, and with
it, as you suggested, funds that
go to high-poverty K-12 schools
and special education.
How pointedly will that
be felt in Milwaukee?
Oh my God, I mean,
you know, when you think about their
raison d'etre, this waste,
fraud and abuse.
I mean that, to cut
education is like cutting the
lifeline of a community.
When you think of preparing the
future workforce,
I can see it causing employers
to flee.
Of the state.
And even the country.
I mean, if you can't rely on
employees having basic skills
to be able to add, subtract, and
read and write something
that has always been a challenge,
given the dearth
of monies that are available
for reading and special
education, and this stuff works.
I mean I just had a meeting earlier
today where we
talked about the Mississippi
miracle.
Where people had assumed that the
kids in Mississippi were just so
dumb, they couldn't be taught.
But when you wrap resources
around them...
Voila,
they moved up like 30
percentage points in terms
of the outcomes
for those students.
And so we're,
you know, we're cutting off our
noses despite our faces.
This administration, education,
these Republicans have demonstrated
a real distaste
for education.
I mean, and every— everything
from K through 12 to higher
education, where they're
conditioning Pell grants
in a way that's never been done
before, cutting off
the ability
for parents to borrow
money to send their kids to college.
It is like a really big mistake
that's gonna put not only
Milwaukee, but the nation behind.
You've said that their quote
is truly no bottom to
this bill's cruelty,
but what can you and other opponents
do about it?
Well, you know, Frederica,
I, you know.
I did not have a good 4th
of July.
I was very, very upset.
But you know what?
It ain't over until it's over.
I think now, as
we go through this process,
we're going to continue to talk
about it. We're going continue to
try to win the midterm
elections, win the hearts and souls
and minds of people.
I know I've talked to several
people who confess to
me. That they voted for Donald
Trump, but they had no idea that
he was going to do the
kinds of things that he has done to
them. Because indeed,
the president's base
needs Medicaid
almost more
than anybody.
The president's based
needs SNAP, and they
certainly need educational
opportunities.
They're not, you know,
and I think that.
Many people who sort of thought
that he was going to focus on
throwing out violent criminals
who were immigrants, and
they were going to get rid of the
waste, fraud, and abuse.
And of course, nobody wants waste,
fraud, or abuse.
But no one knew.
That all these cuts were
just going to result into a big
bonanza, you know,
$4.5 trillion
for wealthy people who
don't really need it while
there are debates about whether or
not we should serve breakfast and
lunch to school children.
Nobody knew that that was a
trade-off.
Congresswoman Gwen Moore.
Thanks very much for joining us.
And thank you, you be well, Rodrigo.
Thank you.
Thank you How was that?
Is it OK? It was great.
It was Great. So we're putting