Ascension All Saints, Racine's only general hospital, came out $176.4 million ahead under Wisconsin's hospital tax over the eight budget years from July 2017 through June 2025, more than any other hospital in Racine or Kenosha counties, according to Department of Health Services reports. In 2024-25 alone it paid $5.13 million and received $23.48 million back in added Medicaid payments, a net gain of about $18.4 million.
The gain came while the hospital was getting smaller. All Saints admitted 8,082 patients in the year ending June 2025, down from 12,995 six years earlier, a drop of 38 percent. Its staffing fell from the equivalent of 1,388 full-time workers to 1,126 over that period, and about 41 percent of its beds were filled on an average day in fiscal 2025, down from about 61 percent in fiscal 2019. Its emergency room still recorded 46,755 visits in that year.
The tax rewards hospitals that treat the most Medicaid patients, and All Saints has the highest Medicaid share of any local hospital, at 24.7 percent of what it billed patients in fiscal 2024. Statewide, hospitals came out $257.5 million ahead under the tax in 2024-25.
The 2025-27 state budget more than tripled the tax. All Saints' bill rose to $17.82 million in 2025-26, while statewide hospitals now pay about $1.51 billion a year and receive about $2.01 billion more in Medicaid payments. State law puts no conditions on how hospitals spend the money and requires no reporting on its use. Ascension said the larger payments help reduce shortfall gaps at safety-net facilities but that a sizable amount of unreimbursed care remains; in fiscal 2025 All Saints spent $71.5 million caring for Medicaid patients and was paid $50.9 million.
Care has also shifted away from Racine. Ascension moved All Saints' inpatient psychiatric care to St. Francis Hospital in Milwaukee, completing the move by June 30, 2026, while outpatient counseling and psychiatry remain in Racine. Aurora's share of Racine-area hospital discharges rose from 18 percent in 2018 to 35 percent in 2025 as Ascension's share fell from 71 percent to 51 percent, researchers reported this month. Federal law begins cutting the added payments in 2028.
