Wisconsin
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Broad Wisconsin Budget Coalition Backs BadgerCare Expansion
By Jon Peacock, Wisconsin Coalition on Children and Families Sooner or later, Wisconsin is going to expand its Medicaid coverage, known as “BadgerCare,” to include all adults up to 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL). The strong public support for expanding coverage and the substantial financial benefits of accepting increased federal funding will eventually…
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Wisconsin Loses Out on At Least $300 Million Due to Governor’s Badgercare Decision
Wisconsin is the only state in the nation to have gone down a very shortsighted and bizarre path with respect to the Medicaid expansion – one that has resulted in serious fiscal challenges for the state. So what did Wisconsin do? Well, in an attempt to “stick it to the man”, Governor Walker said no…
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Expanding Medicaid for Adults Would Also Help Wisconsin’s Children
By Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, Dr. Gail S. Allen, Dr. Elizabeth J. Neary and Dr. Ellen R. Wald – Wisconsin pediatricians You may wonder why pediatricians are writing in support of accepting federal funding under the Affordable Care Act to expand Medicaid to higher eligibility levels. After all, in Wisconsin most children under age 18 are…
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New Badgercare Waiver is Good News/Bad News for Transitional Medicaid
By Jon Peacock, Wisconsin Council on Children and Families The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) announced yesterday that Wisconsin has been granted a federal waiver to make substantial changes to BadgerCare. As anticipated, the waiver allows the state to extend BadgerCare up to the poverty level for adults who aren’t custodial parents of dependent…
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Children’s Coverage on the Eve of the Affordable Care Act
Here’s a good news story on health coverage that the public is largely unaware of. The number of uninsured children continues to decline to historic lows – a remarkable accomplishment given the high childhood poverty rate and tough economic times. Yet a majority of Americans are unaware of this achievement. In a poll CCF commissioned…
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Children’s Health Coverage on the Eve of the Affordable Care Act
Georgetown University Center for Children and Families researchers analyzed health insurance data from the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey to get a closer look at children’s coverage trends. On the eve of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act coverage expansions, the authors found important lessons from the success the U.S. has had in covering children. The number of uninsured…
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Wisconsin Provides A Reality Check about What Low-Income Families Can Afford to Pay for Medicaid
States that have not yet decided to expand Medicaid to low income adults and parents are considering their options, and some are hoping to experiment with charging monthly premiums. New data from Wisconsin provides a helpful reality check. Slightly more than two-fifths of the lowest income adults paying premiums—who did not exit BadgerCare or Transitional…
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WI Gov Proposes BadgerCare for Childless Adults but Cuts to Parent Coverage
By Jon Peacock, Wisconsin Council on Children and Families Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin announced last week that his budget proposal will significantly reduce eligibility for parents in BadgerCare, while partially closing the current gap in BadgerCare coverage for adults who don’t have dependent children. The Governor’s plan will cut in half the income ceiling…
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Getting Into Gear for 2014: Findings from a 50-State Survey of Eligibility, Enrollment, Renewal, and Cost-Sharing Policies in Medicaid and CHIP, 2012-2013
As 2013 begins, implementation of the major provisions of the ACA, including its coverage expansions, is less than a year away. Following the Supreme Court ruling to uphold the ACA and the 2012 elections, efforts to prepare for 2014 are moving into high gear in many states. The majority of states are capitalizing on web-based…
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23 States Receive CHIPRA Performance Bonuses for Removing Barriers and Enrolling Children in Health Coverage
Demonstrating that covering kids is still a very high priority across the nation, twenty-three states earned CHIPRA performance bonuses for improving access to children’s health coverage and successfully enrolling eligible children. The states will split a total of nearly $306 million. The 23 states include: Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan, Montana,…
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Uninsured Children 2009-2011: Charting the Nation’s Progress
Georgetown University Center for Children and Families researchers analyzed health insurance data from the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey to get a closer look at children’s coverage trends. The authors found that the nation continues to make steady progress covering children, despite no reduction in the number of children living in poverty. A strong commitment to…
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State Fact Sheets Highlight Importance of Medicaid Coverage for Children
By Ielnaz Kashefipour, American Academy of Pediatrics The American Academy of Pediatrics, in partnership with the Children’s Hospitals Association (formerly NACHRI), this week produced updated state-by-state fact sheets that explain the importance of the Medicaid program for children. These fact sheets are used in federal and state advocacy efforts to protect the Medicaid program from…
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Governor Walker Misstates Impact of ACA and Its Effect on Medicaid
By Jon Peacock, Wisconsin Council on Children and Families In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker attacked the federal health care reform law, but made one general point I concur with. He recommended looking at the practical impact of the Affordable Care Act in the states, and I wholeheartedly endorse that suggestion.…
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Medicaid Coverage for Parents under the Affordable Care Act – State Fact Sheets
This issue brief presents national estimates of the number and characteristics of uninsured parents who would be eligible for Medicaid in 2014 according to whether they have child who is currently enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP coverage or an uninsured child who is eligible for Medicaid/CHIP but not enrolled. State-specific data are also provided on the ten…
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ACA Protects and Improves Access to Preventive Care for Children
Medicaid and CHIP have helped millions of children access preventive care at no cost to families. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) takes this commitment further by removing cost and coverage barriers that could deter families from taking full advantage of preventive care services in private insurance plans. Since becoming law, the ACA has helped maintain…
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National Groups Express Concerns About Wisconsin’s Waiver
By Wesley Prater Many thanks to the organizations that joined us in submitting a letter to federal officials in opposition of Wisconsin’s request to waive maintenance of effort provisions. These provisions are so valuable to families because they preserve stability in states’ Medicaid and CHIP programs. Groups such as the AARP, American Heart Association, Center…
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Performing Under Pressure: Annual Findings of a 50-State Survey of Eligibility, Enrollment, Renewal, and Cost-Sharing Policies in Medicaid and CHIP, 2011-2012
Amid ongoing state budget pressures, a requirement in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that states maintain eligibility in Medicaid and CHIP was central in preserving coverage during 2011. In addition, more than half of states (29) made improvements in their programs. Most of these improvements involved greater use of technology to boost program efficiency and…
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Essential Health Benefits: What Does the CHIP Experience Show Us?
So my previous blog on this topic talked about how the CHIP/Essential Health Benefits analogy has its limits – still it is interesting to look at the choices that states have made for their benefits packages in separate state CHIP programs. According to data collected and released by NASHP from mid-2008, the most popular choice…
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Coming Soon to a State Near You? Wisconsin seeks to preview a slasher triple feature
By Jon Peacock, Wisconsin Council on Children and Families A drama has been slowly unfolding in Wisconsin relating to the shape of the state’s Medicaid program. If it were made into a movie, it would be a slasher film with an unwilling cast of nearly half of the 780,000 people enrolled in Wisconsin’s highly successful…
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Despite Economic Challenges, Progress Continues: Children’s Health Insurance Coverage in the United States from 2008-2010
In this paper, health insurance data from the Census Bureau’s annual “American Community Survey” was analyzed in order to get a more accurate depiction of children’s coverage. Even though the number of children living in poverty has increased almost 19 percent over a three-year period, the number of children without health insurance declined 14 percent–…