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Why Wisconsin Needs to Expand Medicaid Now to Help with COVID-19
One thing our state can do right now to protect families is to expand the Medicaid health insurance program so that more people have health coverage and can get care if they become sick without worrying about large medical bills afterward. Most states have already taken this step – it is time for Governor Evers and our state legislature to do the right thing and expand Medicaid.
Expanding Medicaid is an urgent need – it is one of the best tools our state has and
can use right now to protect people during the COVID-19 crisis.
Nationwide Medicaid expansion should be part of our emergency response to coronavirus.
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Wisconsin and 13 other states are putting lives at risk across America by refusing to extend Medicaid coverage to millions who are poor and uninsured. This ensures that many Americans who become infected will go undiagnosed and untreated: people for whom going to the doctor portends financial calamity tend not to do so before their health circumstances become dire.
Expanding Medicaid is an urgent need – it is one of the best tools our state has and
can use right now to protect people during the COVID-19 crisis.
Expanding Medicaid in our state right now can help those who are putting their health on the line every day during the Coronavirus crisis. Those who work in grocery stores and pharmacies, home health workers in nursing homes, front office staff at hospitals and health clinics – these are often the workers who are uninsured and could be covered if our state expanded Medicaid. It is not right that the same individuals who are risking their health by staying on the job may be the ones to suffer the most.
Expanding Medicaid will help workers hit hard by the Coronavirus and
those on the front lines of this crisis.
Health providers on the frontlines of the Coronavirus support Medicaid expansion.
To respond to the Coronavirus and protect their state residents, a number of Governors are using their authority to make it easier for people who lose their job or become ill with Coronavirus to get free or low-cost health coverage through Medicaid. They are streamlining the application process, getting rid of fees, making sure no one gets cut from the program because of paperwork issues, and more. Our Governor should be making these changes too – including expanding Medicaid – so that more state residents who lose their job or become sick with Coronavirus can be covered.
States are making changes to Medicaid to protect their residents
the effects of COVID-19. Wisconsin should too.
Even as we prepare to meet the health impacts of the Coronavirus, the economic impacts of this crisis are already being felt. Many experts predict we will experience an economic recession even after the virus is controlled. It is in tough economic times like these – when people lose jobs and need help – that Medicaid is there to make sure their health needs are met. Governor Evers should expand Medicaid right now so that workers who lose jobs can still get affordable health coverage to stay healthy and be ready to work again after the crisis is over.
Expanding Medicaid can help working families now as the economy worsens.
The heroes of the Coronavirus pandemic are our doctors, nurses, and staff at hospitals and health clinics who put their health on the line every day for all of us. These same health providers overwhelmingly support Governor Evers expanding the Medicaid health insurance program right now so that more people in our state can get care if they become sick, and our hospitals and health clinics can remain financially strong so they can meet the challenges of this crisis and its aftermath.
Health providers on the frontlines of the Coronavirus support Medicaid expansion.
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