A bill announced by legislators Tuesday would stop Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed health care cuts and reverse the elimination of coverage for certain Wisconsinites currently enrolled in the BadgerCare program Tuesday.

Democratic legislators announced their plans to introduce the BadgerCare Protection Act, which would prevent the Department of Health Services from removing funding from the BadgerCare program. 

Repealing corporate tax “giveaways” implemented by the Walker administration would largely fund the proposed act, according to Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, and Rep. Jon Richards, D-Milwaukee, the bill’s authors.

“There are more people now eligible for BadgerCare, and these are people who have been paying their taxes, playing by the rules and doing everything they are supposed to be doing,” Erpenbach said. “Now that they are eligible and they can’t get health care.”

Erpenbach said under Walker’s health care plan, $500 million would be cut from the BadgerCare and Medicaid budgets. 

An estimated 64,000 people – almost half of which are children – would lose health care benefits or be forced to pay higher premiums, according to Erpenbach. Under current policies, adults over 200 percent of the poverty level are eligible for BadgerCare benefits, but this number is likely to be lowered to 133 percent under the cutbacks.

“If the governor is serious about job creation, he needs to do something about health insurance,” Erpenbach said. “They are absolutely making the wrong choices.”

University of Wisconsin professor Tom DeLeire, a health care policy expert and director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs, said with the state facing reductions in other areas as well, there might be few options to compensate for budget shortfalls.

DeLeire said alternative plans were discussed with the Obama administration, but the proposal ultimately introduced by Walker appeared to be the most cost-benefit effective. 

“I think there is no question that [the governor’s] plan will save the state money,” DeLeire said. “There is little evidence that expanding health care saves money in the budgetary sense. Basically, the governor’s plan is to tighten eligibility in a couple dimensions.”

According to DeLeire, many people on BadgerCare are still offered insurance through their employers, but do not take the benefits.

He added the majority of the burden would still fall on the individuals most likely to have privately-funded insurance.

“Where else could they cut? We have already made deep cuts to schools and other areas,” DeLeire said.

Brenda Nemec, a Medical Coordinator at Pewaukee Veterinary Service, shared her experience with BadgerCare at the press conference.

Nemec said her mother was given synthetic estrogen while pregnant with Nemec, and these injections were later found to increase the likelihood of cancer. Nemec is now categorized as “high risk,” which means her insurance premiums were as high as $18,000 a year.

“I am on BadgerCare because I’m allowed to be discriminated against by insurance companies for a complication I was born with, through no fault of my own,” Nemec said. “Without BadgerCare, I would be unable to afford insurance for myself and back to paying outrageous premiums for a plan with a huge deductible.”