The Senate vote scheduled Tuesday for the BadgerCare Basic Plan Bill was postponed until Thursday in order for it to be sent back to the Senate Organization Committee.

Gov. Jim Doyle proposed the Basic Plan in January to provide a basic, “stopgap” health coverage for people waiting to get into the state’s BadgerCare Plus Core program. Later that month, Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee, and Rep. Jon Richards, D-Milwaukee, cosponsored and introduced the bill in the Senate.

At first, Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, opposed Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker’s, D-Weston, motion to send the bill back to the committee.

However, a few senators simply wanted to take more time to look at the amendments of the bill and decided postponing the vote a day would not make much of a difference, said Carrie Lynch, spokesperson for Decker.

The BadgerCare Basic Plan offers a program to help with the overflow of the BadgerCare Plus Core Plan, which is a limited plan that covers basic health care services, including primary and preventive care and generic drugs for the long-term uninsured.

Currently there are more than 20,000 childless adults on the waiting list for the Core Plan. The Department of Health Services estimates at least 5,000 people on the Core Plan waiting list will sign up for the Basic Plan.

So far the bill has been met with positive reception in the Senate.

“Considering that it is scheduled for the floor, it is likely to pass,” Julie Laundrie, spokesperson for Erpenbach said.

The public also has been paying special attention to the bill’s progress, because it will affect many low-income adults struggling between bad economy and health options.

Larry Pheifer, executive director at Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians, said the BadgerCare programs are another vehicle for people who are in-between jobs wanting to get health services.

“Even though the coverage is relatively limited, it can definitely help people in need of primary care,” he added.

Although Laundrie said the postponement should not be seen as a setback, Pheifer cautiously warned he cannot be sure until he sees the bill’s final version.

The bill is scheduled to be discussed on the Senate floor Thursday afternoon.