Chippewa Falls hosts Governor Tony Evers on Medicaid Expansion

Chippewa Falls residents met with Governor Tony Evers on Thursday, sharing their thoughts on Medicaid expansion in his proposed state budget.

The meeting featured community members, health officials, and mental healthcare workers with a focus on the state of healthcare in rural communities. Governor Evers promoted massive increases in healthcare spending in his budget proposal amid concerns that the program could still be decimated at the federal level.

A common theme raised by community members at the meeting was postpartum Medicaid expansion. Currently, Wisconsin is one of only two states to not extend that coverage for new mothers, with only 60 days of coverage as it stands. The other state is Arkansas, where their state legislature is currently advancing a bill that would extend that coverage and leave Wisconsin as the only state without the extension.

Community members also raised a number of concerns regarding mental health in rural communities. In addition to potential Medicaid cuts that would disproportionately hurt those rural residents, other potential federal cuts like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program could cause increased financial stress for those rural communities and contribute to declining mental health.

Medicaid cuts could also negatively affect the new hospitals planned in Chippewa Falls and Lake Hallie. Following the HSHS closures, a number of health officials cited inadequate Medicaid reimbursement as the main driving factor. Governor Evers has also previously cited a failure to expand Medicaid as the reason for those closures. With the entire program potentially at risk at the federal level, it could have dire consequences for the efforts made to improve healthcare access in the region.

“They’ll be starting out with a deficit if they do to Medicaid what everybody’s fear is,” said Governor Evers. “If that’s going to go down, that’s going to make it more difficult for anybody, whether the hospitals are open now or not. They’re not going to be able to pay the bills. Everybody in D.C. is in some La-La Land that they’re thinking this is what the people of the United States have asked for.”

Governor Evers also noted that Medicaid expansion could have brought in an additional $2 billion, which could solve a lot of the issues facing rural healthcare providers.