Walker pulling out health care safety net from hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites

Despite claiming to keep a basic safety net for low-income families for health insurance through the state’s popular BadgerCare program, around 215,000 children and adults will likely see a steep reduction in the health care services they’re currently able to get. 

Now keep in mind, BadgerCare only provides basic health services – services to help people stay healthy, or treat them for various illnesses and disabilities. We’re not talking tax-payer funded plastic surgery here, but routine care and cancer treatments like Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch received through her tax-payer financed health coverage. 

So what’s getting cut? Prenatal care? Hospitalization costs? Eye or dental exams for children? Mammograms? Types of cancer treatments? Ambulance services? Walker needs to come clean on exactly what health care services are going to be off limits to these 215,000 children and families. 

Cuts in services could mean more sick people, more emergency room visits, more chronic health problems that could have been managed through preventative care, more deaths. 

So many families, like the one highlighted in this article, are one illness away from bankruptcy – even though they were employed, making good money, and had health insurance:

For JoAnn Schulz, she fears the only way her family will avoid bankruptcy is if her disease takes her life — she has a good life insurance policy.

“I’ve made good money my whole life, paid a lot of money to taxes, gave a lot to charity,” JoAnn said. “I was trying to do the right thing.”

Breaking down into tears, she said, “It just feels like nobody cares.”