They include children born with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and other disabilities.

They include people paralyzed in accidents or by strokes and those with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses. They include the elderly in nursing homes. And they include children whose parents are unemployed or in low-wage jobs.

All of them -- and the list is far from complete -- depend on health programs run by the state. They have a direct stake in the health policies of the next governor.

Those policies also could help expand insurance coverage, slow the rise in the cost of health insurance and, to some degree, influence the way hospitals and doctors provide health care...

Expanding health insurance coverage for them will cost money.

"Reasonable people all agree on that," said Len Nichols, director of the health policy program at the New America Foundation, a policy research organization founded to focus on bipartisan solutions...

For the complete article, please visit the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel website.