The Assembly Committee on Insurance will hold an executive session Tuesday (Oct. 11) to vote on AB 210, which would put into state law a number of health insurance reforms in the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) – at least on a temporary basis. The bill was introduced by the committee chairman, Rep. Petersen, and is being pushed by...
DHS Plans First Hearing on One Part of Proposed Medicaid Changes
Oct. 12 Town Hall Meeting in Madison on “Virtual PACE” It’s still unclear if there will be any public hearings on the proposals recently unveiled by the Department of Health Services (DHS) to substantially change BadgerCare for low-income Wisconsinites. (A WCCF summary of the proposed BadgerCare and Medicaid changes was posted online...
DHS Unveils New Webpage to Solicit Comments on Medicaid Cost-Cutting
The Department of Health Services (DHS) unveiled a new webpage Monday that contains descriptions of some of their Medicaid cost-cutting plans and provides an online mechanism for the public to submit comments on the department’s proposals. Thus far, most of the measures described there are the ones approved by the Legislature in the...
Stable for Years, Poverty Skyrockets in Wisconsin
The number of Wisconsinites living in poverty jumped significantly between 2008 and 2010, new figures from the Census Bureau show. Between those years, the poverty rate in Wisconsin increased from 10 percent to 13 percent, and an additional 163,000 Wisconsinites slid into poverty. To put that number in perspective, the number of...
Household Income in Wisconsin Plummets During Recession
Since the recession, Wisconsin household income has plummeted, according to new figures released yesterday by the Census Bureau. Between 2006 and 2010, median household income in Wisconsin dropped by about $3,600, or 7 percent.In yesterday’s blog post, we discussed how child poverty rose faster in Wisconsin than it did nationally. The...
Health Care Cuts in the President’s Deficit Reduction Plan
The deficit reduction plan unveiled by President Obama on Monday would cut health care spending by an estimated $320 billion over the next 10 years. About $248 billion of that total would come from Medicare, and $72 billion would be cut from Medicaid. This blog post summarizes the major aspects of those spending cuts and attempts to put...
Child Poverty Spikes in 2010
The number of children living in poverty rose dramatically in Wisconsin in 2010, according to new figures released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2010, a quarter of a million Wisconsin children lived below the poverty line, about 36,000 more than in 2009. Unfortunately, the increase in child poverty in Wisconsin is nothing new....
Did DCF Violate State Law by Overriding Administrative Rules?
Last month the Department of Children and Families (DCF) made an abrupt and significant policy change to the Wisconsin Shares payments to licensed family child care providers. But in doing so, according to the non-partisan Wisconsin Legislative Council, they neglected to follow legal procedure. The new policy was released as an...
New Census Bureau Data Shows Poverty Holding Steady in WI Amid Big National Increase, But Household Income Continues to Shrink
Today the U.S. Census Bureau released data from its Current Population Survey (CPS) on poverty, household income, and health insurance coverage. Nationally, more people are living in poverty--46.2 million in 2010--than at any other time since the federal government began estimating poverty 52 years ago. The national poverty rate jumped...
Census Data Shows BadgerCare Has Filled the Gap for Many Families and Individuals Who Lost their Job-Based Coverage Due to the Recession, However 504,000 Non-Elderly Wisconsinites Still Lack Insurance Coverage
As WCCF noted in a press release today, the U.S. Census bureau released the Current Population Survey (CPS) data this morning, showing that more Americans are living in poverty -- 46.2 million in 2010 -- than at any other time since the federal government began estimating poverty 52 years ago. The national poverty rate jumped from 14.3%...
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