MADISON – After 11 days traveling by wheelchair from his home in Fox Crossing, Carl Schulze arrived at the state Capitol on Thursday to ask elected officials to offer concrete plans to preserve the Medicaid-funded home care that he, other people with disabilities, older adults, and family caregivers count on daily.

“People with disabilities are asking for the basic tools that allow us to live with dignity and independence: reliable home healthcare that keeps us out of nursing homes and other institutions,” Schulze said. “I am campaigning for the largest minority group in the country — the only one that anyone can join at any moment.”

Last year, Schulze took his first wheelchair trip to the state Capitol to call for higher pay for caregivers. This year his trip was fueled by the nearly $1 trillion cut Congress made to Medicaid funding and a Justice Department memo that questions whether people with disabilities have the right to receive care in the community.

“This year is different. This year the danger is no longer theoretical,” Schulze said. “The federal government is telling states, in plain language, that they will not be punished if they cut home care. They are saying it is not a violation of my civil rights to put me in an institution against my will.”

Schulze relies on caregivers daily to get in and out of his wheelchair. He wants elected representatives and candidates for office to answer how they will ensure that people with disabilities can live with dignity and independence.

“When Medicaid is cut, the damage doesn’t stop with the person receiving care. Home-care workers, nursing-facility staff, therapists, and the local businesses that support them lose hours and wages,” Schulze said. “Some families lose the ability to keep a parent, spouse, or child at home. Forcing people into nursing homes and other institutions cost taxpayers more, not less, and individuals lose their freedom to live the lives they want and reach their full potential. Cuts that look clean on a spreadsheet become concrete losses in every neighborhood in this state.”

Prior to the press conference outside the King Street entrance of the State Capitol, Schulze was joined by other advocates whom he invited to roll, bike or walk the final stretch of his journey with him up East Washington Avenue.

“The last year has brought unprecedented assaults on the civil rights of people with disabilities,” said Jason Glozier, co-chair of Survival Coalition and Executive Director for the Wisconsin Coalition of Independent Living Centers. “Services that promote health, safety and independence are in danger of being stripped away from people simply because they have a disability.”

Wisconsin is already in a crisis due to the lack of paid caregivers, and family members frequently fill the gap, said Tami Jackson, co-chair of Survival Coalition and Public Policy Analyst for the Wisconsin Board for People with Developmental Disabilities.

“Families are already contributing huge amounts of care to make it work, sometimes sacrificing their jobs and careers to do it and they can’t do any more,” Jackson said. “Anyone who needs a little help to stay in their home won’t get it if there are no workers or providers. And all of us will need that help.”


Follow Carl Schulze’s journey on TikTok (@quadcarl), YouTube (quadcarl – YouTube), and Facebook (Carl Schulze | Facebook)

BACKGROUND: Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo from April 2026, that projects a more than $260 million shortfall in Wisconsin Medicaid by the end of this budget year (June 30, 2026).