The following program is a PBS Wisconsin original production.

>> Congress Keeps the budget knives sharp, carving away at federal funding, while Wisconsin spending choices cast an eye toward the bright lights of Hollywood.

[MUSIC] I'm Frederica Freyberg tonight on "Here& Now", Democratic Congresswoman Gwen Moore talks taking back the House in the midterm elections.

Our series uncovered looks at health plans that aren't actually health insurance.

[MUSIC] the way for Hollywood to light up Wisconsin with film maker tax credits.

It's "Here& Now" for July 18th.

>> Funding for Here and Now is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.

>> The dust is settling after passage of the federal tax and Spending Reconciliation bill, which is now law.

What stands out for its impact in Wisconsin?

We turn to Democratic U.S. Representative Gwen Moore of Milwaukee for her take on what it means for people in her district.

And thanks so much for being here.

>> Always good to be with you, Fredricka.

>> So what does stand out for its impact in your district and across Wisconsin?

thing that is most outstanding in this bill is the impact that will have on health care, on the Medicaid cuts.

Badger care, as we call it in Wisconsin.

The Affordable Care Act, Obamacare cuts.

And when you combine the work requirements to receive Medicaid and when you the confluence of all those forces means that they'll probably be something like 276,000 people in Wisconsin who will not receive any kind of health care.

And when you just just the work requirements themselves will cost 68,000.

Individuals with no dependents to lose health care.

And so the theory of the case is that these are just lazy boys in their mama's basements playing video games, and there'd be no harm and no foul to cut them off.

Notwithstanding the fact we don't.

We believe this.

This is not a real person.

This is just a trope.

We're saying that in Wisconsin, a person who say has two minimum wage jobs working at fast food restaurant, they will at minimum wage, working full time.

They will make too much money to be eligible for Medicaid.

So they'll be whether they work or not.

They won't receive Medicaid.

And then there are a number of people who are truly eligible.

They have children.

They're already working.

Most people who receive Medicaid are already working, but the numbers of the bureaucracy and the paperwork that they have added into the bill is really something that they have monetized.

They have monetized people's mistakes so that if you don't re-up or come in every six months to reconfirm that you're still disabled, or that you will find yourself off Medicaid, and then those of you remember Frederica, Wisconsin was one of those states.

I believe it was about 11 states that hadn't taken advantage of the expansion of the Affordable Care Act.

And those people will see their premiums go eight, nine times the amount that they're currently paying.

So say, for example, they were able to get a silver plan.

And for the purposes of keeping the math simple of $100 a month, they might find themselves with six, seven, $800 a month.

We are thinking that the food share cuts snap cuts.

Not only will it cost thousands, hundreds of thousands of people to be cut off food share, but it will also mean that the state itself would have to pay 75% of the administrative costs of the of the food stamp program.

The Snap program, as well as if there are an error rates in excess of 6%, they'll find themselves having to pay for portions of the food stamp program, which to date that burden has never been an unfunded mandate that will be placed on not only Wisconsin, but statewide.

So it is really a bad bill.

>> People who fall off of Medicaid because of the provisions of this bill and potentially the burdensome kind of paperwork, what will they do for health care then.

>> That will increase the amount of uncompensated care that hospitals have to pick up.

And it also means that hospitals will have to make decisions about what kind of health care they will or will not provide.

We've seen in the past, just recently, in our own community maternity wards, closing, where hospitals will decide we aren't going to do cardiac catheterizations anymore.

One of the things is, is that, you know, the president predicts that people won't even pay any attention.

They won't even notice some of these provisions don't come into effect until after the 2026 election.

But that doesn't mean that hospitals won't have to start planning and how to not deliver services.

Now.

>> We know that the Trump administration is apparently making good on its promise to dismantle the US Department of Education.

And with it, as you suggested, funds that go to high poverty K-12 schools and special education.

How pointedly will that be felt in Milwaukee?

>> Oh my God.

I mean, you know, when you think about their raison d'etre that there's waste, fraud and abuse?

I mean, that to cut education is like cutting the lifeline of a community.

When you think about preparing the future workforce, I can see it causing employers to flee the state.

These Republicans have demonstrated a real distaste for education.

I mean, and every everything from K through 12 to higher education, where they're, you know, conditioning, Pell Grants in a way that's never been done before.

Cutting off those, the ability for parents to borrow money to send their kids to college.

It is like a really big mistake that's going to put not only Milwaukee, but the nation behind.

>> You've said that there is truly no bottom to this bill's cruelty, but what can you and other opponents do about it?

>> Well, you know, Frederica, I you know.

I, I, you know, I did I did not have a good 4th of July.

I was very, very upset.

But you know what?

It ain't over until it's over.

I think now, as we go through this process, we are going to continue to talk about it.

We're going to continue to try to win the midterm elections, win the hearts and souls and minds of people.

I know I've talked to several people who confess to me that they voted for Donald Trump, but they had no idea that that he was going to do the kinds of things that he has done to them, because indeed, the president's space needs Medicaid almost more than anybody.

The president's base needs snap.

And they certainly need educational opportunities.

They're not, you know, and I think that.

Many people who sort of thought that he was going to focus on throwing out violent criminals who were immigrants and they were going to get rid of the waste, fraud and abuse.

And of course, nobody wants waste, fraud and abuse.

But no one knew that, that all these cuts were just going to result into a big bonanza.

You know, $4.5 trillion for wealthy people who don't really need it.

While there are debates about whether or not we should serve breakfast and lunch to school children, nobody knew that that was a trade off.

>> Congresswoman Gwen Moore, thanks very much for joining us.

well, Rodriguez.

>> Thank you.

Next week we speak with first district Republican U.S. Representative Brian Steil.

As to congressional action this week, both the House and Senate voted to rescind funding already appropriated for the next two years to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

That's a $1.1 billion cut to PBS and NPR, PBS Wisconsin is a member station of PBS.

[MUSIC] continuing coverage of prescription drugs, where the cost for patients continues to skyrocket as health coverage for critical medication declines in uncovered here and Now, producer Marissa Wojcik examines the complex systems driving these trends and the stories of patients facing life or death choices.

Our next story is about a leukemia patient who had a promising treatment that cost the same as buying a house, and he couldn't access it without paying upfront.

>> All of a sudden, my numbers were at like 167,000, compared to like 4 or 5000.

>> Kevin Walz has what's called chronic lymphocytic leukemia or Kiel, a type of blood cancer.

He was suddenly in urgent need of treatment.

>> My cancer center.

I can't say enough about him.

>> His oncologist had a prescription that was promising, but it came at a price.

>> $13,000 before we could ship this.

And I said $13,000.

Yes.

That's what this drug costs to be delivered without insurance.

>> He soon discovered his health plan wouldn't be covering a dime of his medication.

Calling it a non-preferred specialty drug and putting him on the hook for 100% of the cost.

>> Nobody could do that.

I don't care who you are.

>> This specialty drug costs $13,000 per month.

It's a non chemotherapy treatment.

And the first FDA approved medicine for people with a high risk form of Kiel with no generic equivalent.

>> I got lots of denial letters and stuff over the months saying that there was nothing they could do.

And I'm running low on my month supply and what am I going to do next month?

>> His clinic pleaded with his health plan to cover some portion of his life saving medication under the Affordable Care Act health insurance plans have cost sharing requirements and limits to what a patient has to pay out of pocket, covering prescription drugs is considered an essential health benefit.

However, Kevin's health plan doesn't fall under the ACA because it's not technically insurance.

Instead, his health coverage through his employer is what's called a self-funded plan.

These plans are also known as self-insured, which is a bit of a misnomer.

>> We don't cover that because we're a self funded insurance company.

>> A self-funded plan is not insurance.

>> Sarah Davis is the director of the center for Patient Partnerships, a research and advocacy program at UW-Madison.

>> Being insurance is what triggers state regulation, and there are rules those companies need to follow in terms of mandatory benefits.

They need to cover, right.

If there are claims being denied the protections that that consumer has are reduced.

In self-funded plans.

>> Today, self-funded plans are the most predominant form of health coverage in the US because they help employers save money.

>> Self-funding lets the employer take control of the second or third biggest line item on their budget.

>> Mike Roach is the director of business development at the Alliance, a Wisconsin organization that helps employers design self-funded health plans.

>> If you're if you're not trying to manage it and you're fully insured, you're going to get an increase probably every year.

The last few years, that's been a double digit increase.

And it's getting more and more difficult for employers to find a way to control that cost.

>> Making it difficult for employers to afford health coverage.

>> The reason that self-funded plans came about is that employers realized they were paying a fixed amount to the insurance company, and then it was the insurance company had that, while holding the risk could make the profit.

And so employers realized, hey, we if we hold all that money ourselves and only pay a certain percentage in claims, we're keeping that profit.

The concern I have as a health advocate is that a large motivation for having a self-funded plan is to save money, and the place that the that the money is saved is in paying out less claims.

>> A recent study shows the top issue for Wisconsin businesses is to make health care more affordable.

That same study says the majority of people in Wisconsin are very worried about their cost of health care.

>> Knowing that your self-funded and that there's value to be found if you, as the employee, are good stewards of the plan and seek value, that should have a trickle down effect so that the next year you don't see your part of that premium go up.

You may not have to change deductibles or co insurances so you can get some stability in your plan.

>> But it's often difficult for people to even know what kind of plan they have.

>> It takes advocates and patients sometimes quite a bit of time to parse out and figure out that it is not insurance.

>> A lot of it comes back to transparency.

What employees employer has now become the insurance company.

You know, whether you're fully insured or self-funded.

That plan, doc, is the same, I think as long as an employee understands the high level pieces of their plan design, deductibles, co insurances, what's on their formulary list from their PBM, who's in network from a doctor or hospital standpoint that's going to cover 95 to 98% of everything they do during the year.

>> So who pays for the big ticket items?

>> You know, there's a couple of drugs coming out.

They're going to be $3 million a piece.

How am I going to cover those?

And how does that trickle down to the humerus.

And the stellaris that folks need on a more regular basis, but are still, you know, thousands of dollars a month?

>> Advocates say self-funded plans can create a conflict of interest for employers who suddenly have an employee with expensive health needs.

>> Maybe you could check in to going part time and see if Medicare or something would help out.

And I thought to myself, really?

You want me to go part time now?

I'm going to lose benefits.

I'm going to lose my insurance, and I'm going to be part time.

Is this a way to weed me out?

Eventually.

situation, right.

The employer wants to protect the employee, right?

They want to get the most for their money.

Once we're in a self-funded situation, the employee is at odds with the employer.

>> The side effects of dealing with it all took a toll.

>> One day I sat on my phone on hold from one of the drug companies for over six hours.

Just stressing me out to the point where I was not paying attention to my healing.

>> Advocates at his clinic didn't let up.

>> They're very persistent, very persistent.

>> Exhausting every possible avenue to access his medicine.

After months of setbacks, good news arrived from his clinic.

>> She kept calling me and calling me and calling me.

She couldn't tell me the news fast enough that they had come through.

The drug manufacturer said they were going to provide the remaining dose of his treatment at no cost.

>> I don't think anybody should have to fight for their life like that.

It's hard enough just to sit back and think about me not being here for the people around me.

I worry about not being here.

Normal, I guess.

>> I worry for people who don't have hours and hours and hours to read fine print and you know, make sure that they're going to get what they need.

If, you know, if they get ill. >> In the end, Kevin hopes some good will come from his experience.

several years ago.

Even after he would go and have spinal taps and stuff, he always said if they can learn something from my treatments for the next people, I've accomplished something in life.

I say the same thing.

If they can get something out of me for other people, I've done exactly what I wanted to do in life.

>> Reporting from Palmyra.

I'm Marisa Wojcik for "Here& Now".

>> In state budget news from 1987 to 2005, the state had a film office spending millions of dollars to attract blockbuster productions like Public Enemies to film in Wisconsin in a sort of take.

Two state lawmakers just agreed to fund a new production incentive program.

The state budget reestablished the Wisconsin Film Office and offers up to $5 million in tax credits to filmmakers.

They're banking on more Hollywood movie makers and local filmmakers to bring their work to Wisconsin.

Here and now, reporter Murv Seymour has details.

>> Thanks, everybody for coming.

This is such a cool turnout.

Let's talk about bringing Tinseltown to the Chippewa Valley.

>> On this cool summer evening in the heart of downtown Eau Claire.

writing, story editing.

>> Locals passionate about filmmaking have come to the town's library to learn.

You can say that if you're an actor, you can say that.

>> Learn from each other about what they can do to encourage and cultivate more filmmaking projects, large and small, to be made in the state of Wisconsin.

>> This turnout is crazy.

>> Tim Schwagel helps set up for this night of collaborating.

lot of people care about filmmaking, care about film or art in general.

We're kind of an island where it doesn't feel like there's a lot of people that do filmmaking in the area.

But as I've learned over the years, is that people just kind of appear and you meet someone who's right in the same town.

It's like, oh, you do this too.

So this is kind of the first time that we've had an event that brings us all to one spot.

>> Almost 70 people passionate about filmmaking >> Somebody who sold a Netflix movie, other people who have shown their documentary around the state.

Actors, writers.

We got Christmas tree farms.

We can do Christmas movies here.

>> Tonight's event has been organized and is led by Nathan Deming, a Los Angeles filmmaker who splits his time between Hollywood and his hometown of Eau Claire.

>> Roll camera please.

>> So far, he's shot five movies in Wisconsin.

He wants to boost local filmmaking in big Hollywood productions in the state.

[MUSIC] You're watching a clip from his most recent movie called February.

least in my world, could have predicted ten years ago that we'd be looking at headlines that Hollywood is leaving LA.

I think the new future is that films going to be everywhere in the hotspots, and it's going to be because of things like the film office.

>> At a time when a movie can be made anywhere.

Up until now, Wisconsin was one of only three states with no state film office and one of only a few states that didn't offer financial incentives to help lure productions to the state.

>> It is all about money.

[MUSIC] there's free money.

>> Production incentives are the number one factor that production companies consider when they decide where to film.

>> I met with former Miramax movie executive Jeff Kurz Inside Independent Studios, a post-production house in Milwaukee that serves large Hollywood based productions and local ones to.

I'm going to guess that you're a pretty important guy in the city.

his movie Deep Woods, and his last two films in Wisconsin.

>> Filmmaking is not something that just happens in New York or Los Angeles or Atlanta or Chicago.

>> Kurz represents a steering committee of filmmakers, business owners, government officials and others who want Wisconsin to compete with neighboring states in luring filmmakers to film in the Badger State by dangling tax breaks.

>> When I was having a conversation with somebody in Eau Claire, I said, listen, you have a beautiful community.

It is picture perfect to make a movie.

There.

But without a film office, there is nobody to tell an out of state production how great you are.

>> There's Banbury Place, this crazy factory thing.

You know, the rivers, you know, we have so many locations here.

>> Wisconsin's revitalized film office will now become part of the state's tourism department.

>> We are turning football fans into Wisconsin fans every moment.

We caught up with its leader during the 2020 NFL Draft in Green Bay.

>> Is a lot about those people coming into Wisconsin to do the production and building a whole cottage industry around that, but it's also about setting a perception once it's on the big screen.

That's also important to the long term perception of Wisconsin.

>> In 2024, the hit TV series Top Chef filmed in Milwaukee.

The show is a highlight reel of Wisconsin culture, cuisine and community that has the entire state cashing in from its worldwide audience.

>> Because people were seeing this restaurant or that restaurant and then just wanted to go there and try it.

All of that is possible as a reverberation from from filmmaking, television making.

So it's not just the filmmakers who would benefit from something like that.

It's really the whole state.

>> The county of Milwaukee saw an uptick of $1.5 million in hotel room rentals alone from people coming here to see to see Wisconsin, right, to see what they had seen on television.

>> New Mexico implemented these and then got Breaking Bad, which was not written for New Mexico.

It just went there because of tax incentives.

And then suddenly it not only got that, it got better Call Saul.

So two hit shows.

>> The talent's here and it's always a roll of the dice to see if something blows up.

But I think it's easy for us to forget here in Wisconsin that Wisconsin is just gorgeous.

of that.

The Driftless Region, gorgeous.

And Lake Michigan.

So we have all of these different terrains.

We have cities like Madison and Milwaukee.

>> Superior offers 25% film incentive for the city itself.

If you stay at their hotels.

Right.

As LA is losing jobs and filming, Illinois is exploding.

Minnesota is exploding.

City like Duluth.

A lot of filming happening on the Duluth side.

Nothing on the Wisconsin side.

And it's just because of film incentives.

>> There are no dollars that are better than Hollywood dollars.

Hollywood filmmaker and Milwaukee native John Ridley when it comes to him or any other large budget film shooting in Wisconsin, he point blank told me this.

>> Until Wisconsin gets tax credits, and that's something that I've advocated for.

No, that's not going to happen.

>> Ridley proudly tells me he routinely shoots smaller projects in Wisconsin.

>> But in terms of doing feature films out here, whether it's myself or anybody else, Wisconsin, I'm going to look into the camera.

You got to get tax credits.

We've talked about this.

You got to advocate for tax credits.

>> Enough said.

Mr. Ridley.

action.

>> Georgia built a really good film incentive program and brought in a lot of business.

And there's movies now that are set in New York City.

But if you watch the credits, there's going to be of it.

There is zero soundstages in the entire state of Wisconsin.

So right now that's a huge thing that if productions want to film like 100 years, the film industry is morphing and we have a real opportunity to pick up the work, just like our neighbors Illinois and Minnesota are doing.

>> Reporting from Eau Claire.

I'm Murv Seymour for "Here& Now".

For more on this and other issues facing Wisconsin, visit our website at PBS Wisconsin and then click on the news tab.

That's our program for tonight.

I'm Frederica Freyberg.

Have a good weekend.

[MUSIC] >> Funding for here and Now is provided by the Focus Fund for Journalism and Friends of PBS Wisconsin.