This is a part in a series exploring aspects of Gov. Jim Doyle’s budget proposal.

Gov. Jim Doyle’s included a plan to maintain Wisconsin’s Medicaid, SeniorCare and BadgerCare programs in his proposed $53.2 billion budget last week.

Doyle’s budget calls for a transfer of money from other state programs and funds to cover some of Medicaid’s nearly $195 million deficit.

“We want to make sure we have a Medicaid budget that is balanced and that protects health care for those people who need it most,” Melanie Fonder, spokesperson for Doyle, said.

Medicaid pays for medical services for low-income seniors and other people who meet criteria for coverage. SeniorCare helps seniors buy prescription drugs at a lower cost, while BadgerCare provides health coverage for uninsured Wisconsin families who are in financial need.

Part of Doyle’s long-term health care plan is to decrease the number of nursing home residents by 25 percent, Fonder said. The Community Integration program, which helps low-income seniors stay in their homes rather than move to nursing homes, will see increased funding if the budget plan is approved. This will allow 1,400 more people to participate in the program.

Gail Sumi, a lobbyist for American Association of Retired People Wisconsin, said Doyle’s budget helps the state’s increasing aging population.

“We’re thrilled the governor has put priorities in his budget that reflect the aging demographic and the needs they will have as they get older,” Sumi said.

One fund Doyle wants to transfer money from is the Patients’ Compensation Fund, which provides extra medical malpractice coverage for health care providers in Wisconsin.

Doyle’s plan also calls for an increase in the daily fee nursing homes pay per bed by $50.

The governor’s proposed budget has been met with criticism by some state legislators.

“We’re concerned,” Mike Prentiss, a spokesperson for State Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said. “The governor had been talking for a long time about repairing and reforming Medicaid. He didn’t really propose any big new solutions.”

Prentiss said the Wisconsin’s Patients’ Compensation Fund is one of the best in the nation.

“It helps keep insurance costs down, and it makes Wisconsin a good place for medical providers to do business.”

If money is taken away from the Patients’ Compensation Fund, Prentiss said, some people would no longer be able to afford health insurance. He said this may happen, because doctors’ malpractice insurance could be increased, which would raise the cost of health insurance.

“To go about trying to solve one health care crisis by potentially creating another one doesn’t seem like a real solution to anything,” Prentiss said.

Fitzgerald and other state legislators opposing the plan will do everything they can to restore Patients Compensation Fund, Prentiss said. However, because legislators have just begun to review the budget, no alternative plan has been proposed.

Fonder said the Patients’ Compensation Fund has an excess of $200 million, and it has grown by almost $220 million in the past four years.

Fonder said the governor is willing to take $180 million from the Patients Compensation Fund in order to keep the state’s 180,000 BadgerCare and SeniorCare participants on health care.

“It is simply unacceptable to take health care away from those people who need it the most,” Fonder said.

The legislators will vote on Doyle’s budget sometime this summer.