HealthWatch Wisconsin
State Budget Bill Threatens Health Coverage for Thousands of Wisconsinites!
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We Need Your Help: The Assembly Takes Up the Budget This Week!
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This Tuesday, June 14, the Wisconsin Assembly will take up the 2011-2013 state budget bill that includes more than $466.6 million in cuts to Medical Assistance.
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We Need Your Help!
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Contact your elected officials to tell them Governor Walker and Joint Finance are taking Wisconsin's BadgerCare program in the wrong direction - toward higher costs, more uninsured children and families, and more economic instability.
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Call the Legislative Hotline:
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Find Your Legislator:
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Join HealthWatch Wisconsin
Help us Promote Access to Health Care & Coverage in Wisconsin!
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Wisconsin Deserves a Transparent, Accountable Process!
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In addition, Governor Walker and Joint Finance are handing over legislative authority to unelected leaders of the Department of Health Services (DHS) to make these changes without public input, and with very limited legislative oversight. The proposal lacks public accountability and constitutes a Walker administration "power grab" to make significant and damaging cuts to BadgerCare and Medicaid over a compliant and complacent legislature.
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The Devil is in the Details!
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Details of the cuts are unknown, being identified as "various unspecified changes" in the budget. As predicted, Joint Finance implemented a passive review process for future BadgerCare and Medicaid changes. This means that the budget committee, not the full legislature, will oversee future review processes. Joint Finance also repealed a budget repair bill provision that previously required DHS to go through normal rulemaking processes. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau speculates that Medicaid cuts will look like:
- Increased cost sharing
- Dropping higher income children from BadgerCare Plus
- Elminating crowd-out of private health insurance
- Changing eligibility criteria
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