Health care for Wisconsin's children
| By Paul Kusuda For about 20 years, I’ve worked with a group of people crafting a legislative proposal called Wisconsin Universal Health Plan. The group has consisted of people representing a wide variety of groups like nurses, unions, physicians, church organizations, social workers, civil libertarians, and others. All are interested in furthering the concept that health care is a right that everyone should have just because they are human beings. But it’s very difficult to carry out. It’s only in the past couple of years that legislation, though written, even reached the stage of public hearing. Questions that must be answered include many of the following: Who pays and how much? Will coverage be extended to everyone who lives in Wisconsin? How about those who live in adjoining states and work in Wisconsin and vice versa? What is included in coverage, any inclusions? What about deductibles and co-pays? Who collects and pays out the funds for the services received? Will drugs be covered? What about mental or emotional illnesses? Will there be provisions for preventive care? Will pre-existing conditions bar participation? Will everyone pay, for example, the unemployed, retired or people unable to work? Will there be some way to control costs and who will oversee the system to make sure that unnecessary expenditures are not made? What will happen if expenditures exceed the amount of funds budgeted to pay for health care costs? What will people do with currently-held health insurance policies or who receive health services through a health maintenance or similar organization? With the many obstacles to getting approval by the Wisconsin Legislature for a universal health plan, any incremental approach to achieving the goal of a universal comprehensive plan presents hope. Governor Doyle’s BadgerCare Plus, signed into law on October 26, 2007, may be seen as a step toward that goal. The following information was included in a report written and published in February 2008 by the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families (authored by Jon Peacock): Through BadgerCare Plus, health insurance becomes “… available to nearly all children in our state without any increase in state funding.” Through the plan, “… Wisconsin joins Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Washington State in covering all or nearly all kids.” Health insurance will cost $91 per month per child, subsidies being available based on financial need.” The BadgerCare Plus plan includes: “All citizen children with subsidies for those in families below 300 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL); “Pregnant women between 185 and 300 percent of FPL; “Farm families and other self-employed parents with incomes up to 200 percent of poverty (many of whom were previously excluded because BadgerCare and Medicaid used a less generous definition of income than is used for tax purposes); “Youth who leave the foster care system when they turn 18; and “Parents with children in foster care and caretaker relatives with income less than 200 percent of FPL.” “In 2009, BadgerCare Plus will begin a Medicaid expansion to cover childless adults below 200 percent of FPL. That group is currently ineligible, regardless of income. “The new law also contains other improvements that will help reach the large number of uninsured families who already met eligibility standards but were deterred from BadgerCare participation by red tape or premiums. These enhancements include: “Simplifying the enrollment process and making greater use of online enrollment; “Creating a less burdensome process for verifying an applicant’s income and health insurance status; “Adopting a presumptive eligibility for kids below 150 percent of FPL; and “Eliminating premiums for children below 200 percent of FPL.” There are two reasons for my writing about BadgerCare Plus. First, it relates to my long involvement in helping to write the Wisconsin Universal Health Plan. Second, there are probably Asian families who need and qualify for participation in the BadgerCare Plus plan. Readers of this article who know of or come into contact with families or persons, whether Asian or not, who might be eligible and who should participate in the program may want to pass this information to them. Outreach and publicity are very important. Health care is a right that everyone should have whether or not they feel they can afford it. Health care must not be contingent on affordability or access.More information about BadgerCare Plus is available on the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families website: http: //wccf.org/health_pub.php |
