Drop of 431,000 Wisconsinites with Employer Coverage Highlights Importance of New Opportunities for Improving Access to Care  In 2011, the percentage of non-elderly Americans covered by employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI) declined for the eleventh year in a row, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Economic Policy...

Study Concludes It Would Yield 24,000 Missouri Jobs Like many other states, Missouri has begun considering whether to use the option provided by the federal health care reform law to provide access to Medicaid to adults below 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL).  As we noted in a recent blog post, a study committee in  the very...

Medicaid Opportunity in Health Care Reform Would Offset Other Costs An updated analysis released last week by the Urban Institute estimates that Wisconsin will save $248 million over the next ten years if the state uses the Medicaid option in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to close the gap in BadgerCare coverage for adults who aren’t...

Committee Unanimously Endorses Expansion to 138 Percent of Poverty Level Wisconsin lawmakers will decide in the next budget whether Wisconsin will begin in 2014 to take advantage of the option in the Affordable Care Act allowing the state to close the gap in BadgerCare for low-income adults who aren’t caretakers of children. Over the...

Governor Walker’s decision last Friday to defer to the federal government on developing and running a health insurance exchange in Wisconsin didn’t surprise me, but his reasoning did. The reasons he cited may sound persuasive to the general public, but at least a couple of his chief arguments are questionable, at best.  A good Capital...