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Progressing Legislation
This week Representative Ballweg presented testimony on two different pieces of legislation.
First, on Tuesday, Rep. Ballweg gave testimony for Assembly Bill 269 regarding increasing penalties for violations of 72-hour no-contact order violations. With recent statistics showing that one in four women will be a victim of domestic violence in their lifetime, the proposed legislation will strengthen protections for victims and witnesses of domestic violence crimes by providing penalties that more closely match the severity of the underlying crime. It will increase the violation from a monetary fine to a Class A misdemeanor, which will help serve as a greater deterrent.
On Wednesday, Representative Ballweg testified before the Senate Committee for Financial Institutions and Rural Issues regarding Assembly Bill 144 which creates a temporary commission on financial aid consolidation and modernization for aid administrated by the Higher Educational Aids Board. This bill is intended to address issues that were raised regarding the efficiency of need-based financial aid and the confusing array of financial aid program options.
Please contact our office if you have any questions about the above proposed legislation.
Medicaid
My office has fielded many questions regarding Badgercare. There are a lot of press releases and news stories floating around claiming over 60,000 people will no longer have access to Medicaid, which is not the case.
Here is a little background, Medicaid was at a deficit of $1.8 billion dollars. The Legislature, along with Governor Scott Walker, was able to find $1.2 billion in revenue to fill the deficit. This still left us 500 million in the red. The Governor then gave control to the Department of Health Service to find savings.
According to the Department of Health Service website the mission and cost of Medicaid in Wisconsin has expanded dramatically over the years. One out of every five citizens are now in one of our various programs (traditional Medicaid, BadgerCare Plus, SeniorCare, and Family Care). Medicaid pays for 45 percent of all births in the state. Medicaid recipients occupy roughly 60 percent of nursing home beds.
If we want these programs to continue and to sustain themselves in the future we need to make some changes, such as;
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Members who have access to reasonable-cost health coverage through their employer or parents rely on that coverage rather than Medicaid.
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Higher-income recipients (above 150% of federal poverty level) contribute a larger premium for their coverage. This would make their contribution closer to what their neighbors with private coverage might pay.
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Benefit coverage and co-pays for most BadgerCare Plus members above 100% FPL be aligned with most widely available commercial health plan in the state, with certain benefits added to reflect the special needs of the population.
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Phase out “presumptive eligibility” as the state implements “real time” eligibility determination for BadgerCare Plus. Currently, when someone applies for BadgerCare, it is assumed they are eligible and their coverage starts immediately – even though we may find out later that they are, in fact, ineligible.
These are just some of the changes that are to be made, the Department of Health Services did travel throughout Wisconsin and held public hearings to receive input. Please visit http://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/ to understand the background and reason for the changes and suggestions people throughout Wisconsin have made.
It was never the intention of the Governor, the Legislature or the Department of Health Services to "kick" people off of Medicaid, these are simply changes to make this program more sustainable for the future.