Over the past year, the Wisconsin state government has made a number of decisions that reflect a significant directional shift in our approach to the well-being of children and families. We have seen our public investments in education, environmental protection, and a variety of social services shrink dramatically. Our tax structure has shifted as well, providing more breaks for corporations and the wealthy at the same time as credits for lower-income residents have been scaled back. This is one in a series of blog posts examining some of those changes and the impact they are having on Wisconsin’s children and families. We hope voters will keep them in mind as they make their decisions this election season, and will urge candidates to talk more about these issues in the weeks leading up to the elections.
————————————-

The past year has been a very worrisome one for parents of children who need BadgerCare coverage. The budget bill gave the Department of Health Services (DHS) unprecedented authority to make sweeping changes to BadgerCare. The cost-cutting policies the department proposed could cause more than 29,000 children to lose their BadgerCare coverage if those changes are implemented.The good news is that the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) concluded that it could not approve the changes relating to children because they would violate provisions of the health care reform law requiring states to maintain their coverage of kids and lower income adults. The BadgerCare changes that DHS will implement in July will still cause at least 17,000 adults to lose their coverage, but that’s far less than would have been knocked out of BadgerCare by the original DHS plan. (Read more about the effects of the approved changes in our Q & A summary.

Unfortunately, health care coverage for kids is still at risk. If the health care reform law is struck down by the Supreme Court or repealed by Congress, much of the original DHS plan could be implemented and up to 48,000 more people could lose their BadgerCare coverage. In addition, the state continues to seek federal approval for a change to BadgerCare that is not barred by the health care reform law. For more than 300,000 people in BadgerCare who have income above the poverty level, DHS wants to establish a new insurance plan that would offer less coverage and have much higher co-pays. That plan might be implemented early in 2013 if it is approved by federal officials.

As the Appleton Post Crescent wrote in a May 7th editorial, the changes that would adversely affect children and families can be avoided. The latest estimate of the state’s Medicaid deficit is far lower than it was last November, and other savings that DHS is implementing would nearly eliminate the shrinking deficit. A Wisconsin Budget Project paper summarizes several better ways to close the modest remaining deficit. Those options are all the more feasible, after the state reported on May 11 that state tax revenue is now expected to be about $265 million above the amount previously estimated.

BadgerCare has worked well for Wisconsin families, and has made Wisconsin a national leader in covering children, families, and adults. As a result of its success, we have one of the lowest uninsured rates in the country.

In the weeks and months ahead, Wisconsinites who care about health care coverage for kids and parents should ask candidates for elected office where they stand on making more cuts to BadgerCare and should let them know how those changes could affect Wisconsin families and our state’s health care system.

Jon Peacock and Sara Eskrich