in Peshtigo and Marinette. Nationally and here in
Wisconsin, possible cuts to the health care program known as
Medicaid have sparked fear in the low income families, elderly
residents and people with disabilities who depend on it.
At a public hearing in West Allis, lawmakers on the state
legislature's Joint Finance Committee heard from many about
why Medicaid needs to be saved. >> Medicaid programs allow
persons with disabilities to live dignified life.
>> Medicaid really supports a healthy Wisconsin. We have about
half a million children in Wisconsin covered by Medicaid,
which is about a third of Wisconsin's kids.
>> People are going to lose their insurance. Rural and low
income hospitals will close, and people will die.
>> Impassioned public testimony on Medicaid before the state
budget writing committee. And now that Congress has passed its
budget blueprint, work begins in earnest in Washington to enact
major tax cuts paid for with sharp reductions in federal
programs that could hit the health care program. As to
Medicaid in Wisconsin, we turn to Bobbie Peterson, executive
director of ABC for health, a nonprofit public interest law
firm helping consumers navigate the health care system. And
Bobbie, nice to see you again. >> Thanks for inviting me.
>> So one point that you really want to make clear is that cuts
to Medicaid have not happened yet. That's right. With that in
mind, what's your guidance? >> Well, I think it's, you know,
don't panic, but let your voice be heard. I mean, Wisconsin
people know that Medicaid is a very important program. It
state. So that's families, friends, neighbors, a lot of
folks out there that have potentially affected by this.
But it hasn't changed yet. And there's opportunities to help
influence the process, hopefully make it better. And to avoid
some of the serious issues that that we're concerned about and
worried about. But I think we're going to do our best to try and
save them off. >> So what kinds of coverage
does Medicaid represent? >> It covers, you know, long
term care for seniors. It covers people with disabilities. It
covers a lot of kids on Badgercare, plus some parents,
childless adults. So it's broad and wide. And so I think if you,
you know, you're most of our viewers will know someone who is
getting Medicaid services. This affects every corner of the
state. >> Why are people sounding the
alarm on potential cuts? Is that overstated?
>> No, I think it's important. And even though it's
characterized sometimes as we're not going to cut the benefits,
just putting procedural hoops and hurdles in the path of
people. We've seen this before. We see it even now, and it could
get worse. So bureaucratic red tape blockages to coverage, just
making it harder for people to navigate these systems without
effective strategies to help people through that system is
the problem. >> As you say, the Trump
administration and GOP leaders say they will not cut Medicaid
benefits. They're going after waste, fraud and abuse. But you
were just talking about bureaucratic kind of red tape.
What could they do around eligibility requirements or
other things like that to affect reductions?
put in require work requirements for certain Medicaid programs
and that it's just the process, the paperwork getting through
it. People that may be ill may not be able to work. You know,
just going through that process deters people, knocks them off
to the side. They lose coverage and they're not getting
important health care and coverage that they need with a
consequence of running up medical bills and medical debt,
which is something that we really want to try and avoid.
>> Now, Wisconsin, as you know, never expanded Medicaid and
expanded Medicaid gave state. The feds gave states 90% of
those costs. Wisconsin never expanded it. So our share from
the feds is 60%. But with any reductions to Medicaid, could it
still blow up, you know, kind of the state budget?
>> Sure. I mean, I think that it depends if what Wisconsin, how
we react to it, you know, but I think for the most part, it's
going to be a situation where people are going to face most of
the pain, not the budget as much, because I think a lot of
folks out there are going to be deterred from getting the care
and services that they need. Their conditions will worse
worsen, their health will worsen, and their medical debt
will accumulate. >> So if there are cuts, what
are the implications to even those not covered by Medicaid
when it comes to things like uncompensated care and
hospitals, rural hospitals? >> Sure. I mean, they're under
stress already. Rural hospitals are under stress. We've seen
closures, rising levels of uncompensated care make it
untenable for them to continue operations in some levels
because it's just, you know, they're not meeting their bottom
line and they can't provide the services that they need. Rural
hospitals are on very thin margins. Most of them. We know
that in Wisconsin in 2023, the last year that that data is
available, there was $1.4 billion in uncompensated care.
That's a lot. But that's going to go up and it's going to
affect more people with more bills and unpaid bills. It's
going to affect hospitals with unpaid bills. It's a system
issue. >> And what does it mean? Apart
from uncompensated care to hospitals to people who are not
on Medicaid, but otherwise covered by other health care.
>> Programs. It's another one of the long term effects. It's cost
shifting. So if we think about, you know, people talk sometimes
about socialized medicine, I talk sometimes about socialized
medical debt. So if you think about all that debt that's
unpaid, it doesn't just go away, but it gets spread out in the
system to everybody else. So we all have a price to pay when
people don't have adequate people don't have adequate