Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett wrote a letter to Gov. Scott Walker Thursday and requested he delay the termination of BadgerCare coverage for approximately 92,000 Wisconsinites until March 31, 2014 to account for glitches in rollout of Affordable Care Act exchanges, according to a press release Friday.
The exchanges, which are aggregated into a federal online marketplace, healthcare.gov, allow people to access a list of standardized health care coverage options based on where they live. The online marketplace experienced technological problems during its launch Oct. 1 due to high traffic, but federal officials have estimated the issues will be resolved by the end of November.
Barrett said in the letter the problems with the online exchanges will make it nearly impossible for people to purchase ACA health care plans before Dec. 15, which would be the deadline for people to receive coverage starting Jan. 1, 2014.
Even if the glitches in the online marketplace are eradicated by the end of November, people would only have two weeks to choose a plan, according to Barrett’s letter.
“The simple solution to this problem is to postpone implementation of all BadgerCare
changes until March 31, 2014,” Barrett said in the letter.
Walker stirred controversy in the state when he denied federal funding to expand BadgerCare, which required the state to use the federal health care exchange instead of its own exchange system.
Barrett said in the letter his request is not aimed to spark debate about ACA or BadgerCare changes but to protect the “health and well-being of some of the most vulnerable people in our state.”
