Wide-reaching coronavirus relief legislation introduced by Wisconsin state lawmakers Monday includes a provision that would make the state eligible for an additional $150 million in federal Medicaid funding every three months for the duration of the pandemic.
Wisconsin was initially set to miss out on the 6.2% increase in federal Medicaid funding because the state was not compliant with conditions laid out in a COVD-19-related relief bill passed by Congress last month. The bill says that states cannot have imposed new restrictions on Medicaid recipients this year in order to be eligible for the funding.
Wisconsin made a series of changes to its Medicaid program on Feb. 1, including adding monthly premium payments for childless adults, imaking the state ineligible for the increased funding. The legislation introduced by state lawmakers on Monday would allow the Wisconsin Department of Health Services to suspend compliance to those Feb. 1 changes for the duration of the pandemic, making the state eligible for the additional federal funds.
The 6.2% bump could save $150 million in state spending per quarter, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
Jim Jones, the state’s Medicaid director, said the new money will be focused on two areas: covering increased costs as Medicaid members require more intense care at hospitals and covering costs associated with an expected increase in demand for services.
Jones said there has not been an increase in health care applications so far. However, he said the state has seen “a large increase in the number of people” who are applying to FoodShare Wisconsin, the state’s program that provides food benefits to low-income households. Jones said this is an indicator that health care applications will likely increase in coming months.
“If you lost your job in March, many times you will have insurance through March and April — you might even have it through May,” Jones said. “So we expect these additional healthcare applications to start increasing in April and then really go up in May and June.”
There were 777,312 Wisconsinites enrolled in BadgerCare Plus in March, according to DHS data.
“[W]e’re going to start seeing a lot more people who are going to need health coverage through the Medicaid program,” Jones said.
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