Both Wisconsin gubernatorial candidates announced significant initiatives Monday, just two weeks before the Nov. 7 election.
Doyle submitted his formal application to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, asking that Wisconsin's prescription drug program be extended. The program, called SeniorCare, allows the state to negotiate with prescription drug companies for lower costs on medicine for senior citizens.
If the federal government does not renew the program, it will expire in June 2007.
It is uncertain whether the program will legally be able to continue after the creation of the federal Medicare Part D prescription drug plan. Part D bans states from negotiating with pharmaceutical companies for less expensive drugs.
Participants in SeniorCare pay a one-time enrollment fee of $30, in addition to co-payments of $5 for generic medications and $15 for brand-name medications.
"[SeniorCare] is probably one of the most cost-effective programs the state has ever had," said Jason Helgerson, policy director for the state's Department of Health and Family Services, adding that the program has now served over 100,000 senior citizens.
To apply for a continuance on SeniorCare, the federal government asked Doyle to prove that the program is cost-neutral. A recent state analysis found the program saved $699 million in Medicaid funding.
"The governor immediately started fighting for the future of SeniorCare after the Republican Congress started Medicare Part D," Doyle spokesman Matt Canter said, adding that he sees Part D as a giveaway to big drug companies who wrote the law.
Helgerson also said the timing of the announcement was not determined by campaign strategists.
"[The DHFS has] a number of waivers throughout the Medicaid program for a variety of services," he said. "This is sort of along the typical timeline for requesting an extension."
While Doyle was announcing his plan for a SeniorCare extension, his opponent, U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Wis., was at the Human Development Center in Milwaukee, describing his plans to lower the unemployment and crime rates in the city.
If elected in November, Green said he would move the Department of Workforce Development headquarters from Madison to Milwaukee, in hopes that the department would provide more hands-on assistance to area businesses.
Green also said he would work more closely with faith-based organizations to help societal problems the city has been facing, namely the racial disparity between blacks and whites. His plan would allocate $500,000 in state funds for these organizations.
"These faith-based groups are the ones that have been on the front line in the fight against these problems since day one, and unfortunately, in a lot of instances, it's been only them waging the fight," said Luke Punzenberger, a spokesman for Green.
Punzenberger added that, in many cases, faith-based organizations have done a better job helping the community because they are more familiar with the issues in their area than governmental groups are.
While both candidates' offices expressed satisfaction with the initiatives Monday, some experts question why the campaigns would wait until two weeks before Election Day to unveil these initiatives.
"Their goal, ultimately, is to generate as much publicity as possible, and also to appeal to voting blocks that are likely to care about certain issues," University of Wisconsin journalism professor Dhavan Shah said. "The next two weeks is a blitz, and they are really fighting over a couple of percentage points."
Shah added that it is easier for Doyle to generate publicity than Green, simply because he is the governor. In contrast, Green may have to make stronger statements in order to get covered in the news, he said.
