Success For The Wisconsin Health Insurance Program?

Success For The Wisconsin Health Insurance Program? in Politics and Legislation

Earlier this year, Wisconsin lawmakers decided to expand health care coverage by combining their major health programs for low-income and uninsured children and adults.

They combined three different programs — Medicaid, Healthy Start, and their children’s health insurance program, BadgerCare — together to create BadgerCare Plus. The new program offers affordable health insurance coverage for any low-income resident.

To qualify for BadgerCare Plus, a resident’s annual income can be no higher than 300 percent of the federal poverty level — which is roughly $63,600 for a family of four.

It was launched on February 1, so how is it doing?

So far, BadgerCare Plus has enrolled over 71,000 children and adults living in Wisconsin with health coverage, reported the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Already, that’s coverage for around 16 percent of the entire uninsured population in Wisconsin, according to a 2006 state survey.

“We all should feel this has been a great success in its first couple of months,” said state Governor Jim Doyle.

But is the program too successful? Before the insurance program was launched, state officials expected only 27,000 would enroll.

With these estimates, it was agreed that the matching federal funding, savings from the other programs, and premiums would be enough to fund BadgerCare Plus. Now, they’re not so sure.

“We are going to have to wait a few months and see how this plays out,” said Wisconsin Medicaid Director Jason Helgerson.

Even though the budget of BadgerCare Plus will most likely face a deficit, lawmakers haven’t indicated that they’ll try to cut the program.

“It’s the right thing to do and it’s the smartest investment we can make of health care dollars,” added Governor Doyle.

Comments[0]