Governor Walker proposes extending BadgerCare deadline

MADISON (WITI) -- Governor Scott Walker is calling on the state Legislature to hold a special session dealing with the failure of the new health care roll out. On Thursday, November 14th, Gov. Walker proposed a temporary fix to keep thousands of residents from losing their insurance as the government works out the glitches.

The plan would delay a deadline to move Wisconsinites off of BadgerCare.

"The whole reason we're here today is that the federal government can't get their act together," said Gov. Walker. "We're not going to let people in this state who are in need fall through the cracks just because the people who pushed Obamacare can't make it work."

Around 92,000 low-income and disabled Wisconsin residents were set to be transitioned off of the state's BadgerCare program and sent to the federal exchanges to buy their own health care, but technical glitches on the exchange website have made the transition nearly impossible.

Gov. Walker is asking the Legislature to extend the deadline so signing up for the new federal plans from December 15th, 2013 to March 31, 2014 -- giving the federal government a three-month period to fix the website.

Wisconsin Democrats say Walker made the situation more complicated by changed the eligibility for BadgerCare, meaning tens of thousands would have to find new insurance.

"I'm glad the Governor sees value in extending it to March, but if he really was interested in helping out a lot of people, he would make that extension permanent and take the federal money," said State Representative Cory Mason. "The choice he made was saying 'no' to a Wisconsin exchange and saying 'yes' to putting Wisconsin residents into the federal exchange."

Democrats are urging the Governor to accept federal money to expand BadgerCare, negating the need for any deadline extensions. Gov. Walker says that is not going to happen.

"The failure of Obamacare roll out is precisely why I didn't take the Medicaid expansion money in the first place -- because the people taking the money are depending on the federal government living up to their commitments -- a federal government that can't even get a web site up and running," said Gov. Walker.

Gov. Walker would like the special session to take place by mid-December.