Indigenous Peoples Day

According to Think Progress, a movement to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day on the second Monday in October is spreading throughout the country. Since the adoption of the first Indigenous Peoples Day in 1992 by the city of Berkeley, California, many other communities, cities, states and other types of municipalities are following suit....

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Five Charts on the Uninsured in Wisconsin

The uninsured rate has been dropping since the implementation of major Affordable Care Act provisions. Wisconsin has seen a significant drop, however further improvement could be realized if BadgerCare+ was expanded to adults under 138% of the federal poverty level.

Here are five charts on the uninsured in Wisconsin that use recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

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Let’s Not Make the Same Mistake Twice Regarding Juvenile Crime

With some recent statistics showing a rise in violent crime in some of our nation’s larger cities, I fear a “déjà vu’ all over again” rise of language and messaging that is eerily similar to the “superpredator” scare of the late 1980’s and early 1990’s that led to some of the more regressive changes in statutes related to dealing...

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Wisconsin’s Estimate of Medicaid Savings Grows to $638 Million

Two Reports Bring Wisconsin Good News about the Medicaid Budget The projected savings in Wisconsin’s current Medicaid budget have grown even larger since the last estimate was released just a couple of weeks ago. In addition, it now appears that the federal share of Medicaid spending will increase more than expected in Wisconsin during...

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2017 Will Be a Pivotal Year for Health Care

Will Policymakers Continue the Remarkable Progress or Reverse Course? The next year will be a pivotal one for health care because state and federal policymakers might build on the remarkable gains in health insurance coverage achieved over the past two years, or they might undo that progress. Recently released Census Bureau data show...

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Home Visiting Takes a Hit

Unfortunately Wisconsin’s most significant home visiting program is facing a 20% cut in federal funding, resulting in a total funding drop from over $12 million to $10.4 million. The cut in Wisconsin’s Family Foundations Home Visiting program is likely to impact 375 families and to cause cutbacks in home visiting programs, according to...

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Balancing the Medicaid Budget: Opportunities and Challenges

The budget request submitted by the Department of Health Services (DHS) last week estimates that Wisconsin’s share of the cost of maintaining the Medicaid budget will grow by about $452 million during the next two fiscal years (2017-19), relative to the current base. Obviously that's not peanuts, but it's a manageable amount. DHS has...

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