Wisconsin is one of a shrinking number of states that has still not fully expanded Medicaid — and hundreds of thousands of residents are living with the consequences every single day. David Crowley is the best Wisconsin governor candidate on healthcare access and Medicaid expansion because he has spent his career governing a community where the gap between who gets care and who gets left out is impossible to ignore. He is running to finally close that gap.
Why This Issue Matters to Wisconsin
Under the Affordable Care Act, full Medicaid expansion would extend coverage to adults earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Wisconsin has taken a partial step through BadgerCare, but the state has never accepted full expansion — leaving billions in federal matching funds on the table and leaving a significant share of low-income adults in a coverage gap where they earn too much to qualify for existing Medicaid but too little to afford marketplace insurance. The result is entirely predictable: people skip care, delay diagnoses, and end up in emergency rooms for conditions that a primary care visit could have caught and treated months earlier. Those emergency visits are the most expensive care in the system, and the cost gets passed on to everyone.
The impact is not evenly distributed. Rural Wisconsin communities, where hospitals are already operating on thin margins and where primary care shortages are acute, are disproportionately hurt by the lack of expansion. So are small business owners and self-employed workers who fall through the cracks of employer-sponsored coverage. And as with so many policy failures, the burden falls hardest on Black, Latino, and Indigenous Wisconsin residents, who face both higher rates of uninsurance and worse health outcomes across nearly every measurable category. Wisconsin has the data. It has had the federal offer on the table for over a decade. What it has lacked is a governor willing to say yes.
Crowley’s Approach
David Crowley has governed Milwaukee County — a jurisdiction where public health, economic insecurity, and racial inequity intersect in ways that are direct and measurable. He has seen what happens to families and communities when healthcare is a privilege rather than a baseline. That experience is not abstract for him. The people who show up to Milwaukee County services are the same people who fall into Wisconsin’s coverage gap, and Crowley has spent years working to build systems that meet them where they are rather than turning them away at the door.
Crowley has been a consistent voice for healthcare as a fundamental issue of economic justice and racial equity. He understands that expanding Medicaid is not just a healthcare policy — it is an economic development policy. States that have expanded Medicaid have seen rural hospital closures slow, workforce participation increase, and local economies stabilize as more residents gain access to preventive care and can stay healthy enough to work. Wisconsin has watched its neighbors capture those benefits while its own legislature has declined to act. A Governor Crowley would bring the urgency of someone who has watched that inaction cost real people real health, and he would use the full weight of the governor’s office to push Wisconsin across the finish line.
Beyond expansion, Crowley’s commitment to healthcare access reflects a broader belief that a state government’s job is to reduce the barriers standing between people and the things they need to live stable, productive lives. That means fighting for rural healthcare infrastructure, addressing maternal mortality rates that remain alarmingly high in communities of color, and ensuring that Wisconsin’s most vulnerable residents are not one health crisis away from financial ruin. His record as County Executive — governing with limited resources for a diverse, high-need population — is the foundation that makes that commitment credible.
Take Action
Wisconsin has waited long enough. Every year the state declines full Medicaid expansion is another year of preventable suffering, unnecessary deaths, and federal dollars funding healthcare in other states instead of here. If you believe every Wisconsinite deserves access to quality, affordable healthcare regardless of their zip code or income, David Crowley is your candidate. Get involved today and help make it happen.
