Clint Moses support of anti-Medicaid bill could haunt his reelection campaign

State Rep. Clint Moses co-sponsored a bill that would have snatched Medicaid benefits away from Wisconsin residents. The bill could become a liability in his reelection campaign.

Moses was elected to represent District 29 in the State Assembly in 2020. Due to redistricting, he is now running in District 92. His Democratic opponent is former state Rep. Joe Plouff.

From 2020 to 2023, Wisconsinites who were enrolled in Medicaid, known as BadgerCare in the state, were automatically re-enrolled each year. This process was implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In April 2023, after automatic re-enrollments ended, Moses co-sponsored Assembly Bill 148, which would have made reapplying to the program more difficult. Proposed restrictions included requiring the Department of Health and Human Services to cross-reference applicant data with other state agencies and not notifying applicants when there were errors on their applications. The bill also required Medicaid enrollees to reapply every six months. 

The stated purpose of the bill was to cut down on waste and fraud, but experts warned it would be inefficient and lead to Medicaid benefits being denied to eligible individuals.

Multiple advocacy groups, including the American Cancer Society and the Wisconsin Catholic Conference, opposed the legislation. Sarah Sahi, an American Cancer Society spokesperson, submitted written testimony laying out the bill’s potential repercussions.

“Requiring such frequent re-application and re-determinations of Medicaid eligibility is

burdensome on enrollees … ” Sahil said. “Frequent re-determinations could result in loss of access to health care coverage due to small — often temporary — fluctuations in income, making it difficult or impossible for those with cancer to continue treatment.”

Barbara Sella, a Wisconsin Catholic Conference spokesperson, submitted testimony about the bill’s potential impact on low-income households and the charities that help them.

“It is important to note the impact this bill will have on private charitable actors,” Sella said. “Depriving the poorest among us of health care will only shift the burden to the hundreds of private charities, Catholic and other, which are already overwhelmed. While as Catholics we stand ready to serve the common good, we cannot be expected to serve more with less.”

According to PBS, the same month Assembly Bill 148 was introduced, Moses and two other Republican lawmakers attended a conference in Nashville, TN hosted by the Foundation for Government Accountability, a conservative think tank.The foundation reportedly covered the lawmakers’ travel expenses.

The Foundation for Government Accountability later submitted testimony and research in support of Assembly Bill 148. The group claimed that safety net programs, like Medicaid, were preventing able-bodied Wisconsinites from rejoining the workforce. There is no conclusive evidence to support this claim.

Assembly Bill 148 passed the State Assembly but stalled in the Wisconsin Senate.

Moses has backed other bills aimed at cutting safety net programs. In 2022, he introduced a bill to deny Medicaid to any Wisconsnite who turned down a job opportunity. In 2021, he sponsored a bill to rescind federal unemployment benefits from workers laid off due to the pandemic.

In 2023, Moses introduced a bill that would have required Wisconsinites to be drug tested in order to qualify for unemployment benefits.

None of these bills became law.

A Moses spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story.