Gov. Scott Walker announced a new BadgerCare proposal during a press conference Thursday, calling for a special session of the Legislature to delay shifting people on Medicaid and a high-risk health plan to the federal health insurance exchange.

The bill, which will be heard after Thanksgiving, would extend the time for individuals currently on BadgerCare, or Medicaid, to remain on the program through March 31, 2014.

Additionally, individuals under the state’s Health Insurance Risk-Sharing Plan (HIRSP) will be extended coverage through this three-month period as well.

Walker also announced a third item, not requiring a special session vote, asking the Obama Administration to allow individuals who qualify for subsidies to be able to use them under any healthcare plan, not just those under the exchanges.

Originally both groups were scheduled to lose their coverage at year’s end and switched to the exchange set up by the Affordable Care Act starting Jan. 1.

However, with fewer than 900 people in Wisconsin currently signed up for the exchange, Walker said decisive action was needed to be taken to ensure the people of Wisconsin, particularly people in need, did not fall through the cracks.

“It has been abundantly clear the rollout of Obamacare is failing,” Walker said Thursday. “And whether you’re for [Obamacare] or against it, everyone has acknowledged that the rollout of Obamacare has not been as effective as originally proposed.”

The delay will also affect roughly 82,000 individuals who expected to gain BadgerCare under Walker’s plan on Jan. 1, now pushed to April 1.

Walker said his plans keep the current plan of bringing these individuals on intact, but allow time for the federal government to have their operations concerning Obamacare up and working.

Democratic opponents said that the delay would not be necessary had Walker accepted the federal funding to expand Medicaid as a state-run exchange, rather than a federal exchange, in the first place.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin who wrote a letter asking Walker for a delay Tuesday, said in a statement that Wisconsin should have accepted federal funds.

“State-run marketplaces are working across the country and enrolling people but Governor Walker chose to rely on the federal government’s website,” Baldwin said in a statement Thursday. “The Governor should accept the federal investment to strengthen BadgerCare offered by the Affordable Care Act. That would ensure a 100  percent federal reimbursement covering all newly eligible individuals, including the 82,000 Wisconsinites that the Governor is leaving out of the BadgerCare program.”

Walker said some state-run exchanges are facing problems, and the troubled rollout was precisely why he didn’t take the Medicaid expansion in the first place.

Walker added he did not want to put taxpayers at risk by taking the federal funding.

Walker said he believes both of these initiatives will pass with full broad bipartisan support and individuals who were worried about whether they will have access to healthcare for the first three months of 2014 will have it under the current system.