Health Care and Health Insurance Reform

Health insurance costs continue to rise at alarming rates nationwide. Families and businesses are feeling the financial squeeze as double-digit increases are forcing workers to choose between quality health care and basic needs. Lawmakers have been slow to act as the insurance companies continue to raise premiums for working families and employers who want to provide quality benefits.

In 2005, IWF held a series of statewide focus groups on health care reform and published a report based on what citizens statewide wanted to see in a new health care plan.

Based on three proposals for reform—

» the Wisconsin Health Care Partnership Plan,
» the Wisconsin Health Plan,
» the Wisconsin Health Security Act

—IWF toured the state hosting focus groups to see what Wisconsinites thought of each plan and how implementing that plan would impact Wisconsin families. Over a dozen focus groups were held statewide and the results of the focus groups were published in a report, Public Policy Options for a Healthier Future.

BadgerCare

BadgerCare is Wisconsin’s Medicaid program for families with dependent children living in poverty. First introduced in 1999, the program provides assistance to families who cannot afford health insurance. The program has been a huge success and was recently expanded to include every Wisconsin family who cannot afford insurance.

BadgerCare was started as part of SCHIP, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program which Congress passed in 1997. BadgerCare provided Wisconsin families earning less than 200% of the Federal Poverty Line with access to health care.

As a part of IWF Working Families Project, staff researched the implementation of Badger Care and found that not enough eligible children were being enrolled in the program. The information on BadgerCare was not reader-friendly, nor did it include vital information that families needed to enroll. In response, IWF launched an extensive project to publish reader-friendly, understandable materials for eligible families. The information was provided so that more families would find out how the program operated and participate in the program. In disseminating this information, IWF worked with labor unions and other groups to ensure that the public knew that this important program was available to them.

In 2008, BadgerCare Plus was implemented, expanding the BadgerCare program to include all of the state’s uninsured children and their parents as well, based on a tiered-income system. Efforts are also underway to expand the program to childless adults, who are often uninsured and do not have access to state assistance. Thus far, BadgerCare Plus enrollment has exceeded expectations.