We need a Wisconsin BadgerCare Public Option-Take Action!

Help us make a difference by contacting your state legislator today. Ask them to support a BadgerCare Public Option.

Greedy for-profit insurance companies and healthcare providers are driving people away from care as Wisconsinites are delaying care or skipping care all together for fear of a large, unexpected bill they can't pay. The BadgerCare Public Option shifts control away from big insurance and hospitals, who are pricing Wisconsinites out of healthcare. It sets fair healthcare prices without high deductibles, co-pays, and claims denials and is available to every small business and everyone who buys insurance on their own.

The BadgerCare Public Option is a major step towards making healthcare a right.

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Please fight for an affordable healthcare option in Wisconsin!

Dear [elected official],

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I am writing you today to urge you to support a re-introduction of the BadgerCare Public Option legislation by Wisconsin State Representative Kristina Shelton.

In a January 2023 survey of over 1000 Wisconsin health care consumers with one of Citizen Action’s research partners found that 52% of Wisconsinites had delayed or skipped medical care due to cost, and most of these people were insured.  The BadgerCare Public Option bill was introduced into the legislature last session and will be reintroduced in 2023. This is the only bill introduced in many years that comprehensively takes on the issue of rising and unaffordable health care costs.

The BadgerCare Public Option Bill  would:

*Create a less expensive, high quality BadgerCare Public Option health care plan that would be available for purchase on the Affordable Care Act marketplace by all Wisconsinites, regardless of income-level, with sliding scale premium subsidies based on income. The plan would be administered through BadgerCare and include very low cost-sharing provisions, including lower premiums than private insurance plans and very small copays.

*The Public Option plan would be available on the small group marketplace so that small businesses and nonprofits (those with less than 50 employees) could for the first time afford to offer high quality employer-sponsored coverage for their employees at an affordable rate.

*Create a Basic Health Plan (as allowed by the Affordable Care Act and adopted in Minnesota) that would expand BadgerCare Expansion from 138% and 200% of the Federal Poverty Line. Health experts believe people at these income levels do not have the economic means to cope with the cost of private insurance. The Basic Health Plan would include lawfully-present immigrants. (This means public coverage for a family of 3 making up to $49,720 per year)

*Create a state-based health insurance ACA online marketplace instead of forcing Wisconsinites to enroll in health coverage through the federal ACA marketplace (healthcare.gov). The state-based exchange will allow Wisconsin control over promoting open enrollment periods, to set our own budget and create our own plans for getting as many people to enroll in coverage as possible, and provide more support for people through the enrollment process.

Currently, the Wisconsin health insurance marketplace has only for-profit health insurers that have little to no competition and free rein to increase premiums and drive up costs. Public health coverage plans, like BadgerCare, keep health care costs down because they do not have to pay for windfall insurance industry profits and costly overhead for claims denial, and most importantly because we the people through our government set a fair price, not insurance companies, hospital conglomerates, and Big Pharma. We believe that without a competitive public option, health access and cost control will not be achieved in Wisconsin.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely, [Your information here]