Request For Health Committees To Hold Public Hearings On Proposed MA Changes

Dear Senator Vukmir and Representative Stone,

 

On behalf of the over 2,000 supporters and members of the Save BadgerCare Coalition, we are contacting you today as chairs of the state's health committees to ask that you schedule a public hearing on the proposed changes to Wisconsin’s Medicaid program made by DHS on Friday, September 30, 2011.

Our coalition recognizes the cost of providing health care is increasing and there are opportunities to cut inefficiences and to reform our Medicaid program.  In order to allow residents of Wisconsin to be heard, to weigh in with their ideas and to share their insights on what the BadgerCare program means to them and their families, they need the opportunity to speak to their legislative leaders.

We believe that the standing Health Committees in Wisconsin have an important role to play in this discussion. Holding public hearings, whether jointly or seperately, preferably throughout the state will enable people to learn about the DHS proposals and share their comments in-person, face-to-face. Health committee members have a responsibility to use their policy expertise to solicit comments from real Wisconsinites and bring those comments to their colleagues on the Joint Finance Committee, who can review the changes that conflict with state stautes through a more formal review process.

Under Republican and Democratic governors, BadgerCare has delivered the care Wisconsin families need at a price they can afford. Now, during the worst economy in generations, the health care and economic stability BadgerCare delivers is even more important.

BadgerCare is Wisconsin’s award-winning Medicaid program that provides health care coverage for more than 775,000 men and women—and their children—from across the state. Established in 1997 as a bipartisan effort to encourage work and improve health care in Wisconsin, BadgerCare has proven to be a highly effective—and cost-effective—program, successful in both rural and urban communities, in good economies and bad.

Please schedule Health Committee public hearings throughout the state on this very important issue so that some of the 775,000 men, women and their families can have a voice and share it with the legislature, in what should be an open conversation about potential significant cuts to our Medicaid and BadgerCare programs.