Early in December, we predicted that the Governor’s decision to halt the Office of the Insurance Commissioner’s (OCI) emergency rule implementing AB 210 was telling, to say the least, and raised questions as to whether the Governor planned to implement health reform provisions. Weeks later, the Governor indicated that he was halting all...
There has been increasing media attention paid to the separation of families due to immigration status. A recent ABC news special discusses the experience of one undocumented mother in Arizona who was accused of a misdemeanor charge, arrested and placed in a detention center, and separated from her children for 2 years before being able...
The Senate Committee on Health announced today that it will hold a public hearing this Thursday, Feb. 9, on SB 380, which removes the cap on enrollment in Family Care and other long-term care programs. The hearing is scheduled to start at 11:00 a.m. in Room 201-SE in the Capitol. Note that there are also two other bills on the agenda,...
February 4 is the third anniversary of bipartisan legislation that strengthened the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the federal program that, in tandem with Medicaid, makes BadgerCare possible in Wisconsin. This anniversary provides a great opportunity to reflect on our progress in making sure kids have access to health...
Three Percent Increase May Help Some Families Qualify for Benefits Late last week the federal government released the 2012 Federal Poverty Income Guidelines, better known as the "federal poverty level" (FPL). Wisconsin uses the guidelines to determine eligibility for a number of public assistance programs, such as BadgerCare and child...
Low-wage Workers and Seniors Will Pay Millions More in Property Tax The 2012 poverty level was announced late last week, and the new income level for a family right at the federal poverty level (FPL) is now about 3 percent higher than it was in 2011, which reflects an increase in the cost of living. The change in the poverty level...
As tax time is approaching, and the next round of negotiations regarding the payroll tax cuts are gearing up, a bill to deny the Child Tax Credit for those filing with an individual taxpayer identification number (ITIN) is also moving in Congress. The bill, titled Refundable Child Tax Credit Eligibility Verification Reform Act, would...
A new memo from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) provides a detailed analysis of the status of Wisconsin’s Medicaid budget. A careful review of the memo reveals that the various cost-saving measures proposed by DHS far surpass the estimated budget gap if they are all approved and yield the savings DHS has projected. However, some of...
The Department of Health Services (DHS) estimates that lifting the cap on Family Care (and IRIS) and allowing the program to expand into additional counties will cost $80 million in state GPR funding in the current biennium. As we noted in a previous blog post, the bill to lift the cap has no appropriation because the intent of DHS and...
More Discouraging News Regarding Special Committee RecommendationsIn a blog post last week, Sara Eskrich noted that the Legislative Council met on January 18 and recommended only 3 of the 11 bill drafts developed by the Special Committee on Infant Mortality. That same day, the Legislative Council also considered four bills developed by...
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