Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday called for a special session of the Legislature to delay shifting more than 100,000 people on Medicaid and a high-risk health plan to the federal health insurance exchange.
A bill to be acted on after Thanksgiving would allow about 77,000 adults on Medicaid, or BadgerCare, who make more than the poverty level to remain on the program through March 31, Walker said. Another bill would extend the state’s Health Insurance Risk-Sharing Plan, which has about 25,000 people, through the end of March.
Under Walker’s budget passed in June, both groups were scheduled to lose their coverage Dec. 31 and switch Jan. 1 to the exchange set up by the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare.
But enrollment in the exchange, which started Oct. 1, has been hindered by glitches to the website healthcare.gov. Throughout Wisconsin, fewer than 900 people picked a plan during the first month.
