Media Reports on Walker BadgerCare Plans Disturbing

Milwaukee: According to media reports by Associated Press and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Governor Scott Walker will announce his decision Wednesday on whether to take billions of federal dollars to fill the holes in BadgerCare.  The information was initially leaked to conservative blogger Christian Schneider, who works for the right-wing Wisconsin Policy Research Institute.   

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Christian Schneider also say that Governor Walker will turn down the full Medicaid expansion, and pursue a “middle path.”

Robert Kraig, Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, made the following statement in response to these media reports:

“We know of no credible middle path that would result in guaranteeing coverage to low income Wisconsinites who currently fall between the cracks in the BadgerCare program. As far as we know, taking the new health care reform money for BadgerCare really is an all or nothing proposition, and has been treated as such by all credible health care experts across the country and the six conservative Governors who have already accepted the money.  Based on the fragmentary media reports we have seen, we are very concerned that spokespersons for the Governor are trying to pre-spin a decision that would that would have devastating consequences for the healthcare freedom and security of over 100,000 Wisconsinites.  We profoundly hope that these press reports turn out to be inaccurate.  If Governor Walker turns down billions in federal money for BadgerCare, there is no doubt that many Wisconsinites will die as a consequence.”

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268748/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=Xr7Ppmlp

Walker to announce decision on Medicaid expansion

WI State Wire
SCOTT BAUER
Published: 26 minutes ago

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Gov. Scott Walker plans to announce Wednesday his much-anticipated decision on whether Wisconsin will expand its Medicaid services to cover 175,000 childless adults as allowed under the federal health care overhaul law.

Walker signaled last week that he may strike a middle path, not fully embracing the expansion allowed under the law championed by President Barack Obama but also making it possible for more people to get coverage under the state's BadgerCare Medicaid health programs.

"I think there's more than just a black or white," Walker told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in a Friday interview about the choices before him. "I think there's variations."

Walker is among the last Republican governors to decide whether to move forward with the expansion. Six Republican governors, including John Kasich in Ohio, already have agreed to the expansion while 11 other Republican governors have turned it down.

Walker's spokesman Cullen Werwie said Tuesday that the governor would announce his decision on Wednesday.

An outspoken opponent of the health care overhaul law, Walker previously declined to create a state-run marketplace for insurance providers, instead deferring to the federal government to create the exchange.

His decision on Medicaid expansion has been a tightly held secret within his administration leading up to the release of his state budget on Feb. 20. Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said Tuesday he had not been told what Walker's decision would be.

"I want to maintain the maximum flexibility for the state," Vos said, expressing concerns that the federal reimbursement rate to the state could be cut in future years, increasing costs.

Supporters of the Medicaid expansion pointed to an independent analysis by Wisconsin's nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau released earlier this month that said the state could save nearly $66 million over three years by accepting the federal money under the expansion. The savings would come by replacing state money to cover childless adults with money from the federal government.

Democratic supporters have said that is too good of an opportunity to pass up.

An estimated 175,000 childless adults in Wisconsin were expected to qualify for Medicaid starting in 2014 under a full expansion as allowed under the law. To qualify, the household income must be below 138 percent of the federal poverty level, which is $15,414 for an individual this year and $20,628 for a couple.

The federal government pays for all the expansion for three years, or $1.4 billion in Wisconsin, according to the Fiscal Bureau. After that, the federal reimbursement gradually declines to 90 percent. Through 2020, Wisconsin would receive nearly $4.4 billion in federal money, the Fiscal Bureau said.

Democrats and a broad array of labor groups, doctors, hospital, health providers and advocates for the poor have urged Walker to take the deal.

But Walker had repeatedly cited concerns about how much it may cost in the long run to pay for the expansion. While the federal government would pick up the tab for three years, costs to the state would gradually increase and eventually be 10 percent. Over four years, starting in 2016, new costs to the state would total about $133 million, the Fiscal Bureau said.

The Affordable Care Act: Back to Reality

Nine Republican Wisconsin State legislators are threatening to arrest any federal officials who try to implement a federal health insurance exchange in the state.  This development prompted the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial staff to declare, "What's next: Firing on Fort Sumter?"

Evidently that's just what the next step is intended to be.  Yet even ultra-conservative Justice Antonin Scalia knows better.  "There is no right to secede," Scalia recently wrote.

Gov. Walker finally announced his administration will not be presiding over the implementation of a health exchange for Wisconsin because for one he's against it and two it will cost Wisconsinites too much.  The specific details on how the exchange would cost Wisconsin more than not having them is unclear and diametrically opposed to what the intention of the exchanges is designed to be.  The exchanges are supposed to be designed to save buyers of insurance money by providing more choices to access.

Similar exchanges are currently used by public employees through the Employee Trust Fund (ETF) in Wisconsin. Through the ETF, public employees choose an insurance plan that fits their needs and based on the contributions they would like to make.

It seems obvious that all citizens of Wisconsin should have access to a similar exchange. 

While concern over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) is understandable given the nation's inherent distrust of monarchical rule, the ACA is anything but a government takeover of health care.  In fact it is more or less a buy-in to private insurers.

A look at the finer points of the law clearly illustrate how the whole framework of the law is based on conservative and capitalist notions including the provision that everyone buys in.  The so-called individual mandate holds every citizen responsible for his/her own health insurance.  The individual mandate is an attempt to stop people from not purchasing insurance only to show up sick in an emergency room with no way of paying for care.

Although many people may dread the idea of being encouraged toward buying health insurance in lieu of a cash penalty, the people who shouldn't be complaining about the individual mandate are those who agreed with Mitt Romney that there are certain people who don't pay for services.  Likewise, emergency room professionals know all too well the sheer numbers of people who carry no insurance yet expect emergency care.  The ACA's individual mandate hopes to lessen that problem which in turn could lower health care costs.

Below I've tried to highlight some key provisions in the ACA:

Stage 1 (in effect now)
• Outlaws worst health insurance abuses including denials based on preexisting conditions for children (adults in 2014).
• New standards for insurance, such as allowing young adults to stay on parents policies until they are 26.

Stage 2 (goes into effect 2014)
• Expand BadgerCare (Medicaid) to almost all low income Wisconsinites.
• Create competitive health marketplace to guarantee coverage to everyone who does not have good insurance at work.
• Require Members of Congress to buy the same plans offered to everyone else in the new marketplace.
• Strengthen Medicare for Seniors.

 Stage 1 Reforms:
Insurance Practices Outlawed now under the Affordable Care Act
• Preexisting condition exclusions (kids now/everyone in 2014) (see below for a list of preexisting conditions)
• Lifetime limits
• Dropping coverage after a person gets sick
• Excessive insurance industry profits and overhead (80-85% of your premium dollars must be spent on medical care, not profits)

The Affordable Care Act guarantees
• Preventive care coverage (ex: Mammograms, checkups, etc) with no cost sharing (co-pays, deductibles, etc)
• Young adults can stay on parents policies until age 26
• Preventive care without cost sharing for seniors on Medicare

Health insurance companies hold the right to deny any coverage for people who may have been diagnosed under previous care with any one of the following medical conditions.  These are called Preexisting Conditions and this list is not exhaustive:
• Diabetes
• Arthritis
• Heart Disease
• Obesity
• Asthma
• Cancer
• Stroke
• High Blood Pressure
• Hypertension
• Stress disorders
• High cholesterol
• Kidney disease
• Alcohol and drug abuse
• Hepatitis
• ADHD
• Adjustment disorders
• HIV/AIDS
• Alzheimer’s
• Angina (Chest Pain)
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Pancreatitis
• Dermatomyositis
• Emotional disturbances
• Emphysema (Lung disease)
• Major organ transplant

Sami’s Story
“My 7-year-old son, Sami, suffers from a disease that causes tumors to grow all over his body. Sami’s treatments could not continue if we hit our insurance policy’s life time limit. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, insurance companies can no longer impose lifetime limits or deny health coverage to children like Sami with preexisting conditions. We can’t go back to being on our own against the insurance companies.”
--Tracy, Appleton, Wisconsin

Remy’s Story
“I own a small café. Over 20 years ago I beat cancer, but ever since then no insurance company would sell me a policy because my cancer is called a preexisting condition. Starting in 2014 under the Affordable Care Act, no insurance company will be allowed to discriminate against me because I’m a cancer survivor.”
--Remy, Pepin, Wisconsin  

State’s Health Care Plan a Lose-Lose for Wisconsin Families

Contributed by Jessica Jaglowski.

Every time I read something about Wisconsin’s plan to remove thousands of people from the state’s highly successful and nationally recognized BadgerCare program, I’m baffled. The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) has held multiple listening sessions, and I’ve spoken in front of Secretary Smith twice. He even held my baby. I think they are trying to find solutions. But at the same time, the solutions they are looking at still exclude working families with low incomes and no affordable health care options. It’s as if monetary concerns now far outweigh the concerns of people’s basic welfare. Health care is a primary need - you cannot function without your health. Yet so many people cannot afford to get the care they need. People should matter more than money, especially in these trying times.

Unfortunately, the cuts being proposed will seriously affect people - regular hard-working people trying to raise their families. My family comprises one of the tens of thousands of Wisconsin families at risk of losing our BadgerCare coverage.

My husband is employed full time at a nonprofit organization, and our annual household income hovers around 133% of the federal poverty level for our family of five, which includes our three children, ages 9 months to 6 years. His employer offers a health plan, but the premium costs $15,000 a year, almost half of our total income. There's no way we could afford it.

While health insurance costs have skyrocketed, reaping billions of dollars in profits for the CEOs of the major health insurance companies, salaries for working people have remained stagnant. For us, like so many other working families, health care means BadgerCare.

So what do these proposed changes mean to us? DHS has laid out two scenarios:

The first is to implement a plan - one that requires federal approval - that would ratchet up monthly premiums and co-pays based on family income, while shrinking the range of services covered. This plan means monthly premiums increasing from $10 a month to more than $100 for families like us already just barely getting by. It means paying hundreds of dollars more in out-of-pocket costs. It means worse coverage. If this plan passes, health care will no longer be affordable for families like mine. Thousands of us will be forced to choose between buying groceries and buying insurance. With three little mouths to feed, which do you think we’ll be forced to choose?

The other option - again, self-imposed by this administration - is equally bad: If the federal government doesn’t approve the DHS plan, they’ll lower the income eligibility level to 133% of the federal poverty level, the lowest allowed by federal law. 133% of the federal poverty level also happens to be just about what my household brings in. About 53,000 Wisconsinites will be shut out of coverage, most likely including members of my family. For us, it’s a lose-lose situation.

Gov. Walker claims that budget problems have left “no choice” but to kick thousands of people off of BadgerCare and Medicaid. This is not true. These dramatic changes could be avoided by rolling back about a quarter of the tax cuts the legislature has handed out to corporations and the wealthy this year. Sec. Smith keeps saying what a good value BadgerCare would still be after the proposed changes. Again, this is not true. How can anything be considered a “good deal” if you simply can’t afford to pay for it?

The listening sessions held by DHS have not gone unappreciated. However, with the announcement of either drastic cuts or extremely increased fees, it seems clear that Gov. Walker and Sec. Smith are out of touch with the financial realities of working people in Wisconsin. They ostensibly don’t understand what it means to have to decide each month which bills get paid and which can be temporarily put off, or between buying your child a decent pair of shoes and paying a third of your income for health insurance. As many Americans are startlingly beginning to realize, you can’t buy something if you don’t have the money to pay for it. The people of Wisconsin need Sec. Smith to rework this plan that potentially leaves so many people without BadgerCare and instead figure out a way to reduce health care costs without increasing the number of uninsured Wisconsinites; more uninsured people only ends up increasing health care costs for all of us. Wisconsin needs BadgerCare to remain viable and strong to protect and uphold the general welfare of the people.

Jessica Jaglowski, a mother of three, lives in Milwaukee.

The Fuckers at Wisconsin's DHS

The fuckers at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services have proposed as part of their money saving scheme to slash the amount of recipients to the Badgercare system.  The inhumane bastards care little for the concept of government providing for the welfare of the people.  In this new age, government officials care more about turning a profit or balancing the budget rather than about the people the government has been created to protect.

These officious pricks are busy taking largess salaries and claiming nice benefits while denying the rest of us equal benefits.  This is utterly outrageous.  They are the pigs lining the rest of us up for slaughter.

"Dear Dennis Smith, you dirty rat,

I am shocked to hear that this proposal includes eliminating hard working families with employment but unaffordable health coverage through their employers.

This seems to me beyond comprehension and terribly malicious.  I work a full time job but my employer only covers 75% of the cost of my premiums.  The rest of my family receives no employer benefits.  The result of this is that my annual premium is $12,000 with a $3,000 deductible.  The Wisconsin DHS has now determined that I should pay this outrageous premium.  This ridiculous sum totals nearly half of my annual salary.  Although this egregious blackmail is not yet illegal, it is positively primeval and unethical.  Because while my family suffers the fat fucking coffers of health care executives grow ever fatter like pus filled zits. 

The DHS would have me believe that I am on my own then to find affordable health care?  As it has happened, our saving grace through this great recession has been the government's care and oversight of health care through BadgerCare.  Without the very effective BadgerCare system my family would find itself in dire straits (evidently the great asshole of Wisconsin would like this to be so). 

One of the roles of government is to provide for the welfare of the people.  BadgerCare accomplished that mission.  Removing people from the program is tantamount to a calamitous offense committed against the citizenry of Wisconsin.

Rather than cutting hardworking citizens tending to their families from their health care provisions, how about addressing some of the outrageous monetary gains made by local hospitals and health care providers.  Yet, it is far easier to attack the weakest among us than it is to address the real problems in our society - greed and avarice of the wealthy capitalist glutton pigs.

Well it's appalling to think that my family and others in the same situation as us will lose health care coverage only to find out what so many other families in America already know too well that no affordable health care option exists. 

Although there is nothing I can probably do to convince this agency of the inherent error in its ways, I sincerely hope that these methods of saving a buck over protecting people will be seriously rethought.  In addition I invite you all to kiss my ass and get thee with godspeed to hell."

You sons of bitches.  We all get the message being transmitted: All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.