Michigan Governor Rick Snyder announced Wednesday that he supports using the federal health care reform law to close a large gap in Medicaid coverage in his state. According to an article in the Detroit Free Press: “Snyder gave his unconditional support for an expansion of Medicaid to include about 450,000 more uninsured, low income...
Advocates, legislators, and individual supporters from across the state gathered at the capital today for the introduction of the “Strengthen BadgerCare Act.” This bill would close the gap in BadgerCare, ensuring that low-income uninsured Wisconsinites without health insurance do not continue to fall through the cracks in BadgerCare.A...
Happy 4th Anniversary of CHIPRA ReauthorizationSince 2009, the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (CHIPRA) has helped tens of thousands of Wisconsin kids access BadgerCare coverage. BadgerCare continues to be vital to working families struggling to provide health care for their children, especially during the...
The weekly newsletter of the Wisconsin Hospital Association (WHA) announced Friday that their Board of Directors decided unanimously on January 30 to support “lifting the existing enrollment freeze in BadgerCare Core for childless adults with incomes below 133 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL).” The rest of the newsletter...
Treasury Dept. Decision Increases Importance of Strong BadgerCare Coverage A long-awaited rule issued by the Treasury Department today contains bad news for many health care advocates and for some low-income families who were hoping that subsidies for coverage through the new exchanges would provide a more affordable alternative to the...
Over 90% of the state’s public school districts are now offering 4-year-old kindergarten (4K), serving 46,914 students. The number of children served in 4K has more than tripled since the 2001-02 school year. About one third of 4K programs use a community approach, with the school district collaborating with child care programs and...
About half the states encourage work sharing in order to reduce the number of people who are jobless. One way they can do so is by amending unemployment insurance statutes to allow employees whose hours have been reduced to collect partial unemployment benefits. Wisconsin is not one of the states that allows this, but State Senator...
What Do the New Guidelines Mean for the Medicaid Option? Yesterday federal officials released the 2013 Federal Poverty Income Guidelines, better known as the federal poverty level (FPL). States and the federal government use the guidelines to determine eligibility for many public assistance programs, such as Medicaid, BadgerCare and...
Wisconsin families who live in rural counties are the most likely to benefit from the state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), according to a new report from the Wisconsin Budget Project. The EITC provides a huge boost for Wisconsin’s rural economy and acts as an important resource for working families battling to stay out of poverty. ...
Martin Luther King Day is an important time to take stock of the well-being of children of color in our state. You need look no farther than the White House to recognize that in some respects, great strides have been made in terms of opportunity for African Americans in our country. But as child advocates, we are concerned about racial...
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