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Eric Litke
By Eric Litke July 9, 2019

Medicaid expansion a no go in final budget

Gov. Tony Evers said while seeking the state's highest office he would "take immediate action to accept the federal Medicaid expansion dollars."

His draft of the budget did that, tapping into $1 billion-plus in federal funding as a foundational piece of the funding puzzle.

But the Republican Legislature rebuilt the budget without the Medicaid expansion, and that's what Evers eventually signed into law.

Evers will have other chances to push for Medicaid expansion during his term, but he promised "immediate action," and that hasn't happened. And Republicans show no signs of allowing that to change in the near future.

We rate outcomes and not intent, which puts this at Promise Broken.

Eric Litke
By Eric Litke May 28, 2019

Medicaid promise stalled amid budget battle

Gov. Tony Evers promised on his campaign website to "take immediate action" to accept federal Medicaid expansion if elected.

On his first full day in office, Evers signed an executive order calling on the state Department of Health Services to create a plan to "ensure that more Wisconsinites have access to affordable, quality health care, while saving Wisconsin taxpayer dollars, by expanding Medicaid eligibility" in Wisconsin.

Evers then built his budget around accepting Affordable Care Act funding, which would include the Medicaid expansion. But the Legislature's Republican-run budget committee has stripped that out of the budget, leaving the way forward unclear for this campaign promise.

The Evers-O-Meter rates results, not intent, so we rate this promise Stalled.

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