After Pause in October, Plunge in Enrollment Resumes

BadgerCare enrollment fell by about 3,470 people in November, as the policy changes implemented in July continue to cause people to lose their BadgerCare coverage. In the first five months after those changes were initiated, BadgerCare enrollment has decreased by more than 18,500 people (including about 14,800 parents/caretakers and more than 3,100 non-caretaker adults).

As I reported last month, there was an increase of more than 1,000 people in October, but that rebound was very short-lived. The number of parents or caretakers in BadgerCare fell by 1,460 last month, and coverage of non-caretaker adults fell by about 580.

Although the number of children in BadgerCare is essentially unchanged since the policy changes were initiated, child enrollment fell by nearly 1,200 last month. Fortunately, any negative effects on children are minimized and indirect because federal officials concluded that the Affordable Care Act’s maintenance of effort provisions don’t allow them to approve policy changes that reduce eligibility of children or restrict their participation (such as premium increases).As we noted in a September blog post, the Department of Health Services’ 2013-15 budget request notes that DHS now assumes the July policy changes will reduce enrollment of parents and caretakers by about 21,500 by the end of the 2012-13 fiscal year.

One part of the enrollment decline that is not entirely attributable to the July policy changes is the continued drop in the BadgerCare Core Plan, which serves adults without dependent children. The number of Core Plan participants has dropped from more than 65,000 in January 2010 to slightly more than 21,000 now, and ABC for Health reports that there are about 146,000 people on the Core Plan waiting list.  

Much of that drop is because of the continued moratorium on new enrollment, which causes a sharp decline as participants coming up for their annual renewal drop out for various reasons.  Although a certain amount of attrition or churning on and off a program is normal, it is causing the deep drop in program participation since DHS continues to refuse to take anyone off the growing waiting list.

Jon Peacock