BadgerCare Plus

What better way to kick off this blog than a nice reminder of why we all should care about who controls the state legislature. Madison area families that can't afford health insurance are being encouraged to sign up for BadgerCare Plus onThursday during school registration. According to this article, nearly 500 children in the Madison Area Public Schools were without health insurance last year.

You'll remember that most Republican legislators were strongly opposed to Governor Doyle's ambitious plan to expand Medicaid coverage through BadgerCare Plus. It took a lot of pushing from our Democratic legislators to get this plan passed as part of last year's painful budget process. Think this would have happened under Senator Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, who said that when it comes to health care that "access isn't the problem.."?

So the next time somebody says there's no difference between Democrats and Republicans, they should talk the to families of the 500 children in Madison, and thousands of others statewide, who will now have access to health care because of the efforts of Democratic legislators and a Democratic Governor.