WI Lt. Gov. slams Medicaid cuts as ‘cruelty with a price tag’

State officials are speaking out about the ramifications of sweeping federal health care cuts on Wisconsin and the 1-point-2 million residents who depend on BadgerCare, the state’s Medicaid program. An estimated 276-thousand Wisconsinites could lose their Medicaid coverage over the next decade due to changes included in the Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” passed last summer. About 63- thousand working adults whose jobs don’t offer health insurance are at immediate risk.

Lieutenant Governor Sara Rodriguez says that’s enough people to fill Lambeau Field three times over.

A new report by advocacy group Protect Our Care finds nearly a thousand hospitals nationwide are now closing or at risk of closing. Rodriguez says that includes at least three in rural Wisconsin. The Trump administration says the health care cuts are needed to curb government fraud, waste and abuse.

Rodriguez notes it’s also costing Wisconsin taxpayers about 72-million dollars per year to comply with new federally mandated work and eligibility requirements for Medicaid. She says the number one thing she hears from residents is how unaffordable and inaccessible health care is for them and stresses the money could be spent on improving affordability.

The report by Protect Our Care says the federal changes are expected to shrink state budgets by more than 660-billion dollars over the next decade. Rodriguez, who is a candidate for governor, says Wisconsin is pushing back on every federal rule that doesn’t make sense, but she says officials can’t patch a hole this big from the state level alone.