Wisconsin assembly to take up exchange enrollment delay

MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin state Assembly is scheduled on Wednesday to take up Gov. Scott Walker’s proposals delaying a health insurance enrollment deadline for nearly 100,000 people.

The Republican Legislature earlier this year approved Walker’s tightening of Medicaid eligibility, a move kicking 77,000 people out of the BadgerCare program as of Jan. 1. The state’s high-risk insurance pool also is slated to disappear at the beginning of the year, leaving another 20,000 people without coverage.

Walker says those people could find federally subsidized insurance through the new online exchange, or marketplace.

Walker decided to extend the enrollment date in the wake of problems with the federally run website making it difficult for people to sign up for coverage.