Valued Voice

Kyle O’BrienLast week, before watching the Packers beat the Carolina Panthers at Lambeau Field, I had the opportunity to grab a beer with a former Assembly Democrat in Green Bay. It was great catching up with him, as he has been away from state politics for several years. 

As we reminisced about old stories, caught-up on where people are now and our kids getting older, we began talking about what might happen the following week—as polls showed Democrats having sizable leads both here in Wisconsin and across the nation. 

“One thing I’ve always admired about WHA is that you never ignored the minority party,” he told me. This, from a former legislator who only served in the minority and is now watching some of his previous colleagues, several who served with him in a Democratic minority, take control of the state Assembly and Senate.  

I sat there, at a Packer tailgate, in genuine appreciation for his recognition—years later—of WHA’s hard work on both sides of the aisle, regardless of who is in power.  

This past week, Wisconsin voters ushered in a new era of governing for the state – with Democrats achieving legislative majorities they haven’t experienced in nearly two decades and retaining the Governor’s mansion by electing Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. 

While the priorities of the Governor-elect and the new Legislature will certainly shift, WHA’s legislative priorities will remain around the same issues we’ve always worked on—enacting policies that allow our hospitals and health systems to continue delivering high-value and accessible health care in Wisconsin communities.  

Whether that be improving access to care by increasing reimbursement for professional services in family medicine, obstetrics, behavioral health or other clinical settings that are often subsidized through margins created at the hospital. Or, reducing complexity and cost in our health care system by reforming prior authorization and streamlining claims processing—so our physicians, advanced practice clinicians and other health care staff can spend more time with patients and less time on the phone with insurance companies. Priorities around health care access and cost are not just Democratic or Republican priorities, they are priorities for Wisconsin voters and for our state’s hospitals and health systems. 

In the last state budget, WHA worked very closely with Governor Evers and members of both parties in the Legislature to sign an expanded hospital assessment into law prior to the enactment of HR 1 on July 4, 2025.  

While the focus of this increase in the last budget has largely been on how the program improves hospital reimbursement, by cutting hospital Medicaid losses in half, the frequently glossed over component of the hospital assessment is the massive benefit this program provides to Wisconsin’s Medicaid trust fund. 

The changes to the hospital assessment that we worked on in a bipartisan fashion during the last budget provide over $400 million in additional resources annually, through the Medicaid trust fund, to help sustain and expand access to care with other Medicaid providers—nursing homes, physician groups, independent therapists, dentists…the list goes on. 

But this additional funding is also in jeopardy starting in 2028, when provisions of HR 1 begin to ratchet down the ability for states to use provider assessments to fund increased reimbursement to hospitals and other provider types. 

Put simply, all health care provider groups that care for Medicaid patients and the State of Wisconsin—not just hospitals—have an interest in working with members of our Congressional delegation to reverse these federal cuts to the state’s hospital assessment. 

We have a lot of work ahead of us, but our mission has never been more important. We will always work with both sides of the aisle to enact public policies that help our member hospitals care for Wisconsin communities. It’s what we’ve done for decades and what we will continue to do moving forward.