Walker Rapid Response Part 3: Attacking Health Care Access

Walker Rhetoric: “It’s about Wisconsin families trying to make ends meet and help their children.”

Reality: “Walker’s Department of Health Services could unilaterally change state laws dealing with the programs, which affect more than a million state residents from infants to the elderly and include a spectrum of BadgerCare plans, FamilyCare, and SeniorCare.” [Capital Times, 2/14/11]

Reality: “Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill would give his administration sweeping powers to reshape state health programs covering more than 1 million state residents.” [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2/14/11]

Reality: “The Walker Administration wants sweeping new power over the state’s Medicaid program known as BadgerCare. Joe Muellenberg opposes such a change; he’s a nutrition educator who is concerned about poor families not getting benefits they need. Muellenberg says, ‘I work with many low income children, many of them who are supported by Medicaid; families that need that help and with the proposed legislation in the bill its giving the governor unprecedented rights.’” [Wisconsin Public Radio, 2/22/11]