Wisconsin
Wisconsin Medicaid director: New federal requirements would affect ‘the whole health care economy’
Wisconsin’s Medicaid director says new work requirements in the federal budget bill House Republicans passed last month could extend beyond those who use the Medicaid or FoodShare programs.
In Wisconsin, almost 1.3 million children and adults are enrolled in Medicaid, and more than 700,000 receive FoodShare. The new legislation expands work requirements for both programs.
As it relates to Medicaid, the new rules would affect about 194,000 Wisconsin adults between the ages of 19 and 64 who do not have dependent children at home and have an income at or below 100 percent the federal poverty level.
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“The bill creates new work requirements for this population,” Wisconsin Medicaid Director Bill Hanna told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.” “We estimate that about 63,000 of those currently enrolled are not meeting those requirements today.”
Under those requirements, individuals would need to meet 80 hours of qualifying activities — like working, volunteering or education — per month. The bill would also require individuals to renew their eligibility with documentation every six months, versus the current 12-month requirement.
Work requirements already exist for adults aged 19 to 54 without dependent children under Wisconsin’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, called FoodShare. But those would expand under the bill to include people up to age 65 and adults who have children over the age of 6.
“We anticipate that an additional 88,000 people in Wisconsin will now need to submit additional paperwork to the state in order to prove that they are meeting those work requirements,” Hanna said.
Hanna told “Wisconsin Today” about the potential effects of the bill on Medicaid and FoodShare in Wisconsin.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Rob Ferrett: Could this legislation potentially cause people to be kicked off of Medicaid who shouldn’t be?
Bill Hanna: Yeah, I think there’s a lot of unintended consequences. … Between the ages of 19 and 54, approximately 70 percent of those folks are working, when you look at national data. It’s when you get into that older range, between 55 and 64, that that number goes down. I think what you’ll see is a bigger impact on that older population, primarily women.
I think the other point is this will certainly increase the uninsured rate in Wisconsin. And what we know is that individuals, if they lose their Medicaid, it doesn’t mean they don’t need health care. It just means they don’t have a way to pay for it now, which will increase uncompensated care for hospitals, doctors and other health care providers.
Income is important to hospitals, especially as we’ve seen closures in western Wisconsin, and uncompensated care really impacts all of us. We’re all health care consumers, and when hospitals don’t have enough revenue to stay open, they have to pass those costs on to other health care consumers. So while this may appear to just be impacting those 63,000 individuals that we’re talking about, this really has an impact across the whole health care economy.
RF: When I talked to Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, he said states have expanded Medicaid to cover those it’s not meant for — that they’re abusing the system. What do you think of that?
BH: States are certainly not gaming the system. Everything that states are doing is currently allowable under federal law, and in Wisconsin, we’re really in a different boat than much of the country. Wisconsin has done its own partial expansion, so we’re not getting the 90-10 match like many states are. For our expansion population, the state is putting up 40 percent of that cost. We are also incredibly judicious with how we use provider taxes, always with an end goal of making sure hospitals stay open and stay viable and continue to serve Medicaid individuals.
On qualified individuals or ineligible folks: That’s just not true. Wisconsin and all states go through a review by the federal government every three years determining whether states are making errors or allowing folks on the program that shouldn’t be on the program. Wisconsin’s most recent review was in 2022, and we had a 99.5 percent accuracy rate. And when you talk about what’s inaccurate, it’s really about dotting i’s and crossing t’s, not that folks are ineligible. So the facts aren’t there. We run a really good program in Wisconsin, and these cuts will hurt not only the individuals that we talked about, but again, our health care economy.
RF: What does this mean for the workload at the state with that additional documentation, both for SNAP and for Medicaid?
BH: It’s additional workload. The bill also shifts other costs from the federal government to states. Today, FoodShare is matched 50-50 in terms of how we administer the program. The bill changes that to where the states now need to pay 75 percent of the cost to run the FoodShare program. Also, right now, the SNAP benefits that go out to individuals are paid 100 percent by the federal government. The bill adds, for the first time, a matching requirement for states at least 5 percent, which is $69 million per year in Wisconsin. And it goes up to as high as 25 percent depending on a state’s error rate.
So between the workload and system changes we have to make in order to collect all the documentation, the cost shifting and administrative costs and the new matching requirement for FoodShare benefits, we estimate it’ll cost Wisconsin about $119 million [extra] in the first year alone, just to maintain the program that we have today.
Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield shares his biggest spring takeaway
Wisconsin coach Kelly Sheffield shared his biggest takeaway from the spring following the Badgers’ four-set win over Northern Illinois.
MADISON – Kelly Sheffield has coached All-Americans, national players of the year, national champions and future Olympians in his 13 years as Wisconsin volleyball coach.
So Sheffield’s unique praise of Decelise Champion – a star pin-hitter from Puerto Rico who committed to the Badgers last fall – carries a lot of weight.
“Her highest-end potential is certainly as high as about anybody we’ve ever brought in,” Sheffield said. “She’s got a lot of work to get to where she’s capable of, and that’s on us as coaches and on her to help reach those dreams and goals. But when you’re watching people around her age, she’s different.”
That work is beginning earlier than initially expected after Wisconsin announced that Champion will reclassify from the 2027 recruiting class and join the Badgers as a freshman for the 2026 season.
Champion – currently 16 years old and turning 17 in September – will arrive with a resume that includes experience on Puerto Rico’s senior national team and the elite Italian club Volleyro Casal de Pazzi. That’s all while being strong enough academically to earn a GED degree and the necessary NCAA waiver for a few missing core classes.
“What made it really a lot better is that all of her grades at the different schools she’s been at have been fantastic,” Sheffield said. “She’s an excellent student. Was crushing it at a really, really good academic school in Italy in her third language.”
The timing of the June 12 announcement accounted for the second-last open roster spot for the 2026 season, but Champion and UW’s efforts to make the reclassification possible go back much earlier than that.
“We’ve known she’s wanted to do this since February,” Sheffield said. “We told our team in February that was the plan. And then we didn’t let anybody know publicly until she was done with her season. She just didn’t want to be a distraction for her team.”
Badgers have even more competition at pins
Wisconsin already had plenty of competition at the pin-hitting positions before Champion’s move to the 2026 class.
Grace Egan had a major role on the 2025 Final Four team, and Eva Travis had an impressive spring after transferring from UC-Santa Barbara. Others include Grace Lopez, Madison Quest and the highly-touted freshman duo of Halle Thompson and Audrey Flanagan.
Even with the upcoming addition of one more pin-hitter – and one with such a high potential – UW did not lose any players in the spring transfer portal cycle. Even the idea of someone leaving seemed outlandish to Sheffield.
“If they’re just going to get up and leave because somebody came, I would say that that person is probably chicken s—,” Sheffield said.
Sheffield’s praise of Champion’s proposal obviously does not come with a guarantee of playing time either at the crowded pin-hitting positions.
“I would say, yeah, she does have a chance of being out on the court for us this year,” Sheffield said. “But we’ve also got some other really talented people that play the pins.”
The outside and right-side hitters already on UW’s spring roster will have at least one key advantage over Champion in her freshman season – time.
Egan, Lopez and Quest are returning players (although Egan and Lopez spent their spring recovering from injuries). Travis, Thompson and Flanagan all enrolled in time to spend the spring with the Badgers and impressed in UW’s spring matches.
Champion’s arrival, on the other hand, will follow her participation in an Olympic-qualifying event for Puerto Rico. Sheffield expects that to be Sept. 2, which is the day before fall classes begin and already after UW’s first four matches of the season.
“She’ll be drinking out of a fire hose early on, no doubt about it,” Sheffield said. “Even though she’s been playing with her senior national team this summer, it will be a lot of things coming at her in her secondary language at 16, so there’ll need to be some patience along the way.”
His advice to Champion when she was on campus earlier in June was to “be where your feet are.”
“When she’s with her national team – even though we will have started our preseason, playing matches – don’t worry about us here,” Sheffield said. “Be where your feet are. Be the best you can be for your team there. … Then when you get here, you’re not thinking about your national team.”
Champion’s NCAA eligibility clock starts earlier
Champion’s reclassification comes with the drawback of beginning her NCAA eligibility one year earlier in her volleyball career.
Had she stayed in the 2027 recruiting class, she theoretically would have begun her college career shortly before her 18th birthday and exhausted her eligibility at age 22. Instead, she will begin her college career shortly before her 17th birthday and likely exhaust her eligibility at age 21.
Those scenarios take into account the NCAA Division I Cabinet’s unanimous approval on June 23 of a new eligibility model that will give players five seasons of eligibility in five years. (That replaces the current system with four seasons, redshirts and other waivers.) The NCAA noted that its decision is not final, however, until the meeting concludes on June 24.
“We’re certainly excited to have her this year, but if you kind of think over the course of five years, it’s probably worse for us that she comes a year early,” Sheffield said. “You expect her to be better at 20 and 21 than what she is at 16 or 17. … It really wasn’t something that we were pushing for, but she was ready.”
Of course, volleyball at age 16 or 17 looks different for someone like Champion who has been competing against much older players as a senior national team member and studying halfway across the world from her hometown of Dorado, Puerto Rico.
“When you talk to her, she doesn’t come across as somebody who’s 16,” Sheffield said. “She’s very mature, very easy to talk to, very driven. She’s independent. … She’s had a lot more life experience than most people her age, and that certainly comes across when you’re around her.”
Wisconsin
Cult-classic filmed in central Wisconsin returns to big screen, with enhancements, this weekend
STEVENS POINT, Wis. (WSAW) – A giant spider isn’t actually invading central Wisconsin this weekend.
But an enhanced, big-screen version of the cult-classic 1975 film The Giant Spider Invasion is crawling back into local theaters — and it’s bringing some central Wisconsin nostalgia with it.
The movie was famously filmed in Merrill and Stevens Point, and the updated 2026 release adds enhancements designed for a modern theatrical experience.
What’s new in the 2026 enhanced version?
Executive Producer J.B. Thompson says the team took the original 1975 film and enhanced it for the big screen in 2026, giving audiences a refreshed way to experience a movie that’s long been a Wisconsin oddity — and a point of pride.
Actor and Producer Dan Davies is featured in newly filmed scenes created specifically for this updated release.
Stevens Point’s role in the original film
While much of the film is associated with Merrill, Stevens Point Mayor Mike Wiza says Point also played a major role in the production — another reason the film’s return matters to local history buffs and movie fans alike.
Why does this movie still capture attention 50 years later?
Whether it’s the over-the-top creature feature story, the uniquely Wisconsin filming locations, or the nostalgia of seeing familiar places on screen, the group says the film’s staying power is real — even five decades later.
Screenings this weekend
The enhanced version of The Giant Spider Invasion is set for local screenings this weekend in Central and North Central Wisconsin. To purchase tickets for showings in Stevens Point, Marshfield or Waupaca, click here.
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