Kaiser report forecasts 44 percent Medicaid enrollment drop in WI under Ryan plan

A new state-by-state analysis of Congressman Ryan’s House Budget Plan by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows that the proposed Medicaid Block Grant (approved by the House) would result in substantial Medicaid cuts for states and large increases in the number of uninsured. The Kaiser and Urban Institute analysis includes both the impact of block granting Medicaid and the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), as in the Ryan Budget.

Some of the findings specific to Wisconsin include the following:

• Our state would experience a 32.5 percent reduction in federal Medicaid funding.
• By 2021, Medicaid enrollment would fall by up to 44 percent as a result of block granting Medicaid and repealing the ACA (measured relative to the Congressional Budget Office’s baseline level if the ACA had not been enacted.

To put the projected Wisconsin drop in perspective, a 44 percent reduction in current BadgerCare enrollment would mean that 344,000 people would lose their BadgerCare coverage (based on the April 2011 enrollment level).

The analysis also shows that hospitals would face an annual loss of Medicaid revenue of $84 billion relative to the ACA, a 36 percent reduction for Wisconsin hospitals. At the same time, more people will become uninsured and turn to hospitals for costly emergency care. These uncompensated care costs will be shifted to insured consumers, as well as state and local governments.

The Ryan Budget will inevitably result in dramatic reductions in coverage and similarly dramatic increases in the number of uninsured. This is not the path that Wisconsin and our nation should be taking. Wisconsin families need real health care reform, resulting in affordable, quality care for all.

Sara Eskrich