Report: Wisconsin to pay over $2 billion to support Medicaid in other states

Metro Wire Staff

A new analysis from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue shows that Wisconsin taxpayers will pay more than $2 billion over the next biennium in federal income taxes for other states to expand their Medicaid programs.

Peter Barca, secretary for the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, said in a memo released Wednesday that because Wisconsin has not expanded Medicaid, state residents experience no return on those investments.

“Over the next biennium, this amounts to $2.07 billion,” Barca’s memo reads in part.

Barca goes on to estimate that if the state expands Medicaid coverage to nonelderly adults with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level, Wisconsin will save $324.5 million in general purpose revenue, and draw down approximately $1 billion in new federal funding.

Under the governor’s budget, the state then proposes to reinvest these savings into the health care system to draw down a total of $1.6 billion in new federal funds, Barca’s memo read.