Racine Sun

Wisconsin state Sen. Chris Larson has grown sick and tired of what he sees as the state’s reluctance to do all it can keep as many residents as it can safe and healthy.

“It still boggles my mind that Wisconsin could cover 126,000 more people under BadgerCare while increasing state revenue by $1.3 billion and legislative Republicans are like 'nah' year after year,” Larson recently posted on Twitter. “When people can't afford health insurance, we all pay for it. Cruelty is expensive.”

Larson is hardly alone in his push to expand the program, with most state residents also expressing their support for broadening it. And while Wisconsin Watch reports the Wisconsin Department of Health Services pegs the number of newly added people that would be covered at closer to 90,000, officials add the 2023-25 biennial budget projects that the expansion would enroll about 61,100 parents and 28,600 adults without children.

For most of his first term that commenced in 2019, Gov. Tony Evers has feverishly pushed for expansion under the federal Affordable Care Act, pointing out Wisconsin is one of only 11 states across the country that has not expanded Medicaid coverage to 138% of the federal poverty level.

According to the Wisconsin Examiner, a recent poll commissioned by the American Cancer Society found that 70% of Wisconsin voters support expanding BadgerCare.