Health care:

As congressional Republicans seek to scale back the private health marketplaces in Obamacare, Democrats in Wisconsin and nationally propose expansions of public coverage.

MADISON - As congressional Republicans seek to scale back the private health marketplaces in Obamacare, Democrats here and nationally are proposing expansions of public coverage.

President Donald Trump and the GOP Congress are considering how to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, including the subsidized private insurance it provides to qualifying Americans.

Some Democrats in Wisconsin and around the country are responding with proposals that would make government-run coverage available to more citizens.

“What we’re trying to do is to step into that void with a compelling solution,” Rep. Eric Genrich (D-Green Bay) said Wednesday.

The legislation by Genrich and Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) would let more people buy into the state’s BadgerCare Plus Medicaid program at the state’s cost. BadgerCare would be offered through the Obamacare insurance exchange as a so-called public option that could provide tax credits to help qualifying applicants pay for BadgerCare.

The Medicaid program covers 790,000 needy individuals and could pick up a significant number of the 243,000 people now on the exchanges.

But the Genrich plan faces near impossible odds in passing the GOPheld Wisconsin Legislature and getting additional sign-off from the Trump administration.

In opposing Medicaid expansions, Republicans have pointed out that the program doesn’t actually pay physicians and hospitals the full cost of the care they provide to BadgerCare patients. Expanding Medicaid further might put an added burden on those health care providers and on the private insurers and patients that would have to shoulder the uncompensated costs from BadgerCare patients.

But Democrats are likely to keep pushing expansions of public health coverage.

The California Senate, for instance, last month passed a single-payer health care bill that is similar to the kind of Medicare-for-all system favored by liberal 2016 presidential candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The Nevada Legislature also passed a measure to open up Medicaid to all citizens, though Gov. Brian Sandoval ended up vetoing this “public option” proposal.