Core Plan Coverage Plunges to Less Than 27,000, While Waiting List Exceeds 128,000
A Wisconsin Budget Project Blog post that I wrote on Wednesday examines the plunging number of people served in the BadgerCare Plus Core Plan, which provides modest health care coverage for adults who don’t have dependent children. Since enrollment in the Core Plan peaked at more than 65,000 in January 2010, it has declined rapidly and fell to about 26,800 last month – a drop of 59 percent. Yet the biennial budget bill assumed that the freeze imposed more than two years ago would be lifted and Core Plan enrollment would average 43,000 childless adults per month in the current biennium.
Wednesday’s blog post notes that enrollment in Milwaukee County is now well below what it was in December 2008, before the Core Plan replaced the General Assistance Medical Program (GAMP). Thus, the conversion from GAMP to the Core Plan now looks like a “bait and switch” to people in Milwaukee.
The DHS website continues to suggest that the waiting list will eventually be removed: “A BadgerCare Plus Core Plan waitlist has been created and people on the waitlist will be able to enroll as space becomes available.” Yet it appears that DHS has no intention of halting the steadily falling enrollment.
A letter sent Tuesday by Representatives Richards and Grigsby asks federal officials to consider whether the state’s failure to lift the freeze on new participation in the program is a violation of the terms of the Core Plan waiver or the maintenance of effort requirements in the federal health care reform law.
Read more in the Budget Project Blog post.
Jon Peacock
