Care of stroke victim costs county $250K a year

A foreign national who suffered a stroke in 2020  continues to be cared for at Ozaukee County government expense to the tune of $250,000 a year, officials were told last week.

And those preparing the budget for 2025 must once again decide how they plan to pay for it, supervisors were told.

That’s because, since he is not a citizen, he cannot be covered by Medicaid, a federally funded health care program for low-income people that is administered by the state.

The man, who is in his mid-50s, came to Ozaukee County on a work visa in 1996, and was working and living in Grafton when he suffered a stroke in May 2020, leaving him paralyzed on one side.

After his stroke, a court-appointed guardian was assigned to his case to secure benefits and care.

His care was paid for through Medicaid and Family Care under emergency orders during the Covid pandemic, but those benefits ended Aug. 31, 2023, in part because he is unable to prove U.S. citizenship, county Health and Human Services Director Liza Drake said.

“That made him a ward of the county,” leaving the county responsible for his care, County Administrator Jason Dzwinel told supervisors on the Finance Committee last week.

That meant the county covered his bills for the second half of 2023, which totaled about $133,000, using the Health and Human Services Department fund balance,  a kind of savings account used to cover emergency expenses.

Its balance is currently at about $2.1 million.

The man, who has no family, is currently in a skilled nursing facility, Dzwinel and Drake said.

With the annual cost being $250,000 in 2024, that means the man’s care would consume more than 10% of the fund balance.

Last year, Drake told supervisors that while she could do that, there are a lot of demands on her department looming.

“There are a lot of moving pieces that make me anxious to take it out of reserves,” she said at the time.

One option was to add his care to the county tax levy, but supervisors were loathe to saddle taxpayers with that expense.

Instead, supervisors voted to fund the man’s care in 2024 with sales tax revenue, which has exceeded budget expectations in recent years.

Dzwinel updated the committee, which is responsible for recommending the annual budget, since some members are new and unfamiliar with the situation.

“There’s no end in sight” to the man’s circumstances, Dzwinel said. “This is an unfortunate issue for many counties.”

Drake said she is unable to comment on specifics of the man’s situation due to privacy laws, although she confirmed officials are still investigating whether the man can gain U.S. citizenship.

“We are still actively working with this individual’s court-appointed guardian on citizenship,” she said.

County sales tax collections totaled $11.61 million in 2023, compared to $11.1 million in 2022.

The county budget had anticipated collecting $11.21 million in 2023.

Sales tax collections for 2024 are lagging, both when compared to 2023 and to the 2024 budget, County Finance Director Jay McMahon told the Finance Committee at the same meeting.

April collections were $902,918 compared to $1 million for April of 2023. A decrease of $172,156, which for the first four months puts collections $20,901 behind 2023.

Through April, collections are under budget by $397,352.

“That’s normal at this time of year since collections are historically low in January and February and increase beginning in

March,” McMahon said.

The 2024 budget anticipates $11.6 million in sales tax collections.