Healthy Wisconsin legislation aimed at expanding access to healthcare and lowering the price of prescription medications was introduced by Wisconsin Legislative Democrats last Tuesday.
If passed, the legislation will target BadgerCare, the Wisconsin’s Medicaid program through raising the threshold for qualifying for the program. The legislation also hopes to reduce the price of prescription drug costs by following recommendations from Gov. Tony Evers’ Task Force on Reducing Prescription Drug Prices and will create the Office of Prescription Drug Affordability and the Prescription Drug Review Board.
“All Wisconsinites deserve to have access to quality healthcare at a price they can afford without the fear that one medical crisis could result in financial devastation,” State Sen. Dianne Hesselbein (D-Middleton) said in an email statement to The Badger Herald.
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Introduced by Hesselbein and Rep. Daniel Riemer (D-Milwaukee), the BadgerCare expansion bill would increase the income eligibility limit of certain populations for BadgerCare by up to 138% of the federal poverty level. This would not only allow more Wisconsinites to receive healthcare through BadgerCare, it would also let Wisconsin claim federal incentive funds.
According to Hesselbein, Wisconsin has already lost out on more than $2.1 billion by not expanding BadgerCare. This is because expanding BadgerCare would enable the state to receive $1.2 billion in federal healthcare incentive funds only available to states that expand Medicaid coverage.
Currently, Wisconsin is one of 10 states that has not chosen to expand Medicaid. This means that 40 states are using Wisconsin tax dollars to support their Medicaid-eligible populations, while Wisconsin receives no benefit, Hesselbein said. States that have adopted Medicaid expansion have seen lower maternal mortality rates, increased early-stage cancer diagnoses and improved health outcomes in many varying conditions such as diabetes and depression.
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“We have an incredible opportunity to expand health care coverage and save taxpayer dollars,” Hesselbein said. “Let’s not waste it. It’s past time that we pass this commonsense bill to make our state healthier and economically stronger.”
The bill to lower prescription drug costs aims to address the figure that more than one in four Americans who take prescription drugs report difficulty affording their prescriptions and nearly a third have rationed their medications due to cost, Hesselbein said.
The bill will create the Office of Prescription Drug Affordability and a Prescription Drug Affordability Review Board that will be able to identify the root causes of high drug costs and work to implement changes to lower the price of prescriptions for all Wisconsinites. The bill will also require transparency and reporting across the entire prescription drug supply chain in Wisconsin, cap the cost of insulin and create an insulin safety net program, Hesselbein said.
“Patients should be able to afford the prescription medications they need without having to skip doses or choose between filling their prescriptions and putting food on their tables,” Hesselbein said.
