Bill Gives Walker Unchecked Authority to Alter Medicaid Program

The furor over Scott Walker's union-busting budget-repair bill is causing a national outrage, and rightly so. Taking away workers' collective bargaining rights won't solve Wisconsin's budget woes, and merely serves to limit the rights of workers.

But there's another reason why Walker's bill deserves some negative attention. In January, we brought you the news that Walker was likely to make cuts the state's popular Medicaid program, known as Badgercare. He had promised on the campaign trail to do so, and earlier this month, he lived up to his promises. But instead of simply reducing how much the state spends on the Badgercare, as other cash-strapped governors have done, Walker introduced language that would give the administration "sweeping powers" to change the program, with little legislative oversight.

The Cap Times reports that the Medicaid provision, which is part of the budget-repair bill, "would give the Walker administration unprecedented power to revamp the state's BadgerCare programs without following the legislative processes, public vetting, and even state laws normally required."

Usually, any changes to BadgerCare would have to undergo legislative approval. Now, according to Wisconsin Council on Children and Families (WCCF), which is part of the Save BadgerCare Coalition, the bill would give the Department of Health Services the ability to rewrite Medicaid policy with limited input from the Legislature or the public.  The proposal also allows the Administration to use "emergency" rules to quickly make changes to overrule existing statutes.

Like the move to take away collective bargaining rights for workers, these new rules have nothing to do with balancing the budget, and are another attempt at a power grab. While it's true that the budget may warrant a reduction in spending in many areas, the shift in authority doesn't add up to savings.

And large, unchecked cuts to BadgerCare can hurt the economy. As Kara Slaughter, legislative director for Wisconsin Farmers Union notes, "access to health insurance is the make-or-break factor for many independent farms." Many have told her they would not be farming were it not for BadgerCare, since they do not have access to employer-provided health care options.

Walker hasn't been shy about voicing his distaste for the Medicaid program and some suggest that he deliberately put the sweeping Medicaid provisions in with the other controversial measures, like the union-busting, so that people wouldn't notice.

So, it's critical that people do notice and let him know that his unprecedented attempts at taking over legislative authority will not go unchallenged.

Photo credit: paulbaker