Tony Evers, Wisconsin's new Democratic governor, ran in part on bringing Medicaid expansion to the state, and he's not going to back down in the face of opposition from the Republican state legislature.
Following a closed-door meeting with Republican legislative leadership, Evers insisted that he's going to keep up the pressure "to bring people to be active on this issue" of Medicaid expansion. "I understand that it’s a non-starter (for Republicans). My goal in answering the question around this was to indicate we’re not going to burn the Capitol down here. We are going to disagree."
Coverage for about 80,000 people is at stake, as is about $280 million the state could gain in the next two years. Evers will include expansion in his state budget, which might help bring some legislators to his side. He's also going to the people. "I think if Republican legislators who come from small-town Wisconsin understand the success of those small town hospitals depends upon access to greater resources, they may change their mind," Evers said. "So we’re going to take this directly to Wisconsin in a respectful way."
It is what Wisconsin voted for when it rejected Scott Walker in November. It's what Wisconsin wants, and needs.