How Governor Evers Beat The Odds And Expanded Healthcare Access

     In April 2019, Governor Tony Evers withdrew Wisconsin from a multistate lawsuit, California v. Texas, designed to strike down Obamacare and strip healthcare from more than 30 million Americans, including hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites. His decision paid dividends in June 2021, when the Supreme Court upheld Obamacare in this lawsuit, the third time it did so.

     In Wisconsin, Governor Evers vetoed state legislators' attacks on reproductive healthcare, earning Evers a "baby murderer" insult from Donald Trump. At the same time, he established task forces on issues like women's healthcare and healthcare equity, which helped produce recommendations for the state's budget. These provisions secured nearly $1 billion in extra funding for rural healthcare expansion, veteran's health, student mental health programs, addiction treatment, expanded dental access, and more. He also secured a ten-year extension of SeniorCare, expanded telehealth services, partnered with companies to expand health insurance coverage and lower market premiums, expanded the healthcare workforce and transportation fleet, and more

     In May 2021, Governor Evers called a special session of the legislature to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The legislators, predictably, refused to do so, making Wisconsin one of less than a dozen states that have not expanded Medicaid and costing 82,000 Wisconsinites affordable coverage in the name of political games. 

     At the same time, Tony Evers had to deal with the worst pandemic in a century, and he did a good job of it. Even with Republicans spending millions to challenge his stay-at-home order and mask mandate, he maintained one of the best vaccination rates in the country and saw COVID-19's death rate in Wisconsin counted as among the lowest in the nation.

     Wisconsin is healthier thanks to Governor Evers!!!