Democrats have scheduled a public hearing on health care cuts at the Capitol on Thursday. They’ll be encouraging people to testify on the Walker administration’s plan to cut $554 million from the health care plans that cover state residents. “The governor’s plan to cut a half billion dollars from health care for working families, children and seniors has been hatched for months behind closed doors,” says Milwaukee Representative Jon Richards. “As a result of an open records request that we made, we saw that he never even contacted the federal government to talk about this. We need to do all we can to make sure that working families and children get access to the health care they need.”
The hearing is one of a series held by Democrats at locations around the state. “We want to have people who are benefiting from BadgerCare come up and talk about how it’s impacting their families,” says Richards. “There are thousands of stories around Wisconsin where people who are struggling with jobs that might not pay very well are getting health care through BadgerCare.”
Also on Thursday, Department of Health Services Secretary Dennis Smith is scheduled to review the proposed cuts before the legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance. The Democrats’ hearing is 10:30 A.M. in Room 400 Northeast in the Capitol.