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State News: Obamacare, Milwaukee Brewers, Lame-duck

Evers Directs Kaul to Withdraw From Obamacare Lawsuit

Gov. Tony Evers used his first State of the State address on Tuesday to announce he has directed Attorney General Josh Kaul to leave a federal lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act.

During December’s lame-duck session of the state Legislature, legislators passed a new law that makes it more difficult for the Democratic attorney general to drop out of the multi-state suit. Under the law, Kaul will need approval from the state budget committee to complete the governor’s request.

“The people of Wisconsin voted for a change this November and asked us to stop playing politics with their health care,” Evers said. “I’ve said all along that I believe the best way to maintain protections for health care here in Wisconsin is to stop trying to dismantle those protections at the federal level.”

During his comments on health care, Evers also reaffirmed a campaign promise to accept a federal Medicaid expansion in his state budget proposal. He urged GOP lawmakers, who have been opposed to taking the expansion, to get on board with the plan, pointing out that a number of Republican-controlled state legislatures have taken the federal money.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said after the speech that he sees no room for negotiation on the Medicaid expansion.

“We’re not going to expand government-run and government-controlled health care,” Vos said.

The governor also used his speech to unveil plans to improve drinking-water quality in Wisconsin. After proclaiming 2019 the Year of Clean Drinking Water in Wisconsin, Evers said he’ll sign an executive order in the coming weeks to create a new state staff position within the state Department of Health Services to “address Wisconsin’s lead crisis and to help secure federal funding for prevention and treatment programs.”

FoodShare Recipients Might Lose Benefits
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) is warning food-stamp recipients to watch for letters that say they’ll run out of federal food assistance in March due to the ongoing government shutdown. A press release issued Jan. 18 warned people enrolled in the FoodShare federal assistance program that their March allocation of food benefits would be zero.
According to DHS, the agency is unsure whether federal funding for the program will be available if the government shutdown continues.
Meanwhile, food pantries, including the Wisconsin Hunger Task Force in Milwaukee, are preparing for a potential run on their services.
Nearly 1 million Wisconsin residents were getting FoodShare benefits in 2017, according to the latest data available from the DHS.

Judge Blocks Lame-Duck Restrictions on Early Voting

A federal judge struck down restrictions on early voting passed during last month’s lame-duck session of the state Legislature.

The restrictions limited early voting in Wisconsin to the two weeks before an election. In recent years, cities including Milwaukee and Madison have offered several weeks of early voting.

Liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now argued the new restrictions violated a 2016 federal ruling on election laws in the state. They appealed to the judge in that case, Judge James Peterson of the Western District of Wisconsin, to block the new law.

Peterson issued a favorable ruling for the group.

“This is not a close question,” Peterson wrote in his decision.

The judge also struck down a law passed during the lame-duck session that requires a two-year expiration date on student IDs used for identification at the polls, as well as a law that limits the use of receipts as valid identification for individuals who are involved in the sometimes lengthy process of getting a valid state ID without a birth certificate.  

Analiese Eicher, program director at One Wisconsin Now, lauded Peterson’s decision as a victory for Wisconsin voters.

Republican supporters of the early-voting limitation argued it was unfair that some parts of the state offered several weeks of early voting while others, particularly rural areas, couldn’t afford to do so.

Planned Parenthood Challenges State Abortion Laws

Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin filed a federal lawsuit on Jan. 16 challenging several abortion laws in Wisconsin.

The lawsuit targets a number of GOP-backed state laws, including one that bars advanced practice nurses such as nurse practitioners from performing abortions. Other requirements mentioned in the lawsuit mandate that a women must see the same practitioner for two required visits before receiving an abortion and that a physician must be physically present when a patient receives her prescription for abortion drugs.

Tanya Atkinson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, said the laws make it more difficult for women to get necessary abortions.

“Not only do we believe that they’re unconstitutional, but they’re absolutely not based in health or safety at all,” Atkinson said. “These laws are really just simply meant to block access to abortion for the women of Wisconsin.”

American Family Insurance to Be New Brewers Sponsor

Photo by Gretchen Brown/WPR.

MillerCoors announced Tuesday it will give up the naming rights to Miller Park after the 2020 season. The rights will go to American Family Insurance in 2021. The Madison-based insurance company is also planning to build or lease an office building in downtown Milwaukee within the next two or three years, American Family Chief Executive Officer Jack Salzwedel said.

The Miller Park naming-rights deal is the second major Milwaukee sponsorship that American Family Insurance is involved in. The company is building a $50 million amphitheater on the Summerfest grounds. The project is scheduled to be completed in 2020.

American Family said the Brewers came to them last summer about the 15-year agreement that will begin in 2021. The details of the contract were not disclosed.

American Family Insurance was founded in Madison in 1927. It is the largest provider of personal auto and homeowners insurance in Wisconsin.

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