Many children and families in Wisconsin are still feeling the effects of the recession, and it may be some time before poverty rates fall to their pre-recession levels. That's the picture painted by new poverty and income figures for 2011 that were released by the Census Bureau in September. The new figures also show that significant...
What Has and Hasn’t Been Included in the DHS Calculations? As you have probably heard by now, the Department of Health Services (DHS) delivered some good news Friday relating to the budget for Medicaid (including BadgerCare and Family Care). In a September 28 letter to the Joint Finance Committee co-chairs, Secretary Smith said the...
Kudos to the Dept. of Health Services (DHS) for reminding me and others that that September is Infant Mortality Awareness Month. A DHS press release issued Monday highlights some of the Wisconsin trends and the racial disparities in infant mortality rates: Over the past two decades, overall infant mortality rate in Wisconsin declined...
Adult Coverage Has Fallen by 12,500 Since the BadgerCare Changes Took EffectTotal enrollment in BadgerCare fell by 9,244 in August, and is off by 11,900 since the start of the state fiscal year (on July 1). Looking more closely at the latest data, enrollment of children actually grew by more than 600 during July and August. The number...
DOR Budget Sheds No Light on DCF Proposal to Cut TANF Support for the CreditWill the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) be cut again in the 2013-15 biennial budget, after it was reduced in the last budget? I noted in a Budget Project Blog post last week that the budget request unveiled last Monday by Department of Children and...
Modest Improvements in Poverty and Insurance Coverage, but Many Wisconsinites Are Still Feeling Effects of the RecessionThe Wisconsin economy has been slowly recovering from the Great Recession for a couple of years now, and small signs of that recovery can be seen in the newly released census data for 2011. But the new figures from...
Medicaid Budget Doesn't Reflect ACA Measures and Is Likely to Change Substantially by JanuaryThe Department of Health Services and other state agencies submitted their budget requests to the Dept. of Administration on Monday. All or nearly all of those requests can now be found on the DOA website.In a cover letter to DOA, Secretary...
The percentage of Americans with health insurance through an employer has been declining rapidly over the past decade. The following chart illustrates that trend (using two-year averages from the Current Population Survey data released yesterday), and it highlights the importance of measures in the health care reform law to help...
Wisconsin Numbers Are Worrisome, but We’ll Reserve Judgment until More Precise Figures Are Unveiled Next WeekFigures released Wednesday by the U.S Census Bureau show that the number of uninsured Americans fell by more than 1.3 million in 2011. That’s just the second decrease in the last decade and the largest decline during that...
“The vast majority of American workers have not benefited from the nation’s economic growth over the past three decades,” according to the findings of "The State of Working America," 12th edition. This comprehensive analysis of trends for working Americans, which was released today by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), shows that the...
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