Battleground Wisconsin

Media Call: 2016 Wisconsin vs Minnesota Health Cost Report

Local price data shows a striking and growing cost disparity between Minnesota and every Wisconsin metro area

Statewide: Thursday November 12 at 9:30 AM, Citizen Action of Wisconsin will host a media call with State Senator Jon Erpenbach, State Representative Debra Kolste and Minnesota State Representative Jennifer Schultz to release the 2016 Minnesota vs Wisconsin Health Cost Comparison Report. This report will show large rate disparities between the two states on the individual insurance market.

The 2016 Minnesota vs Wisconsin Health Cost Comparison Report compares both the premiums and the deductibles that consumer in each state pay. The numbers are broken down by metro areas. The report shows major variations in the overall cost of coverage both between the states and within Wisconsin.

For the first time this report will look not just at premiums, but at the overall cost for consumers (both premiums and deductibles together). Public policy options to address high health insurance costs will also be discussed.

We discuss the likely Friday Senate passage of legislation ending the non-partisan GAB and gutting campaign finance laws. We are joined by Rep. Chris Taylor to discuss the devastating news that Oscar Mayer will be leaving Madison and laying off 1000 workers. We also talk with Rep. JoCasta Zamarripa about educating people about the current open enrollment period for the healthcare marketplace and Speaker Ryan’s refusal to consider immigration reform during Obama’s presidency.

We welcome Rep. Debra Kolste to talk about WEDC’s indefensible decision to give $2 million to John Deere to end 100 Janesville jobs for 80 jobs in Horicon. Tamarine Cornelius, an analyst with the Wisconsin Council of Children and Families to talk about new legislation to restrict local school districts ability to hold referendums to raise money for their schools. We also review the latest on efforts to take a machete to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Board and campaign finance laws. We also discuss Paul Ryan’s election as Speaker of the House of Representatives and the release of the 2016 health insurance rates on healthcare.gov.

We welcome Matt Rothschild, executive director at Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, to talk about this week’s rushed legislative action to dismantle the nonpartisan Government Accountability Board and allow unlimited corporate money into Wisconsin elections, leaving the state open to corruption. We review new St. Norbert polling that reveals huge levels of dissatisfaction with Gov. Walker and Wisconsin’s economy. We also discuss the political theater surrounding the conservative courting of Paul Ryan for Speaker and Sen. Ron Johnson’s failure to act on impending Medicare premium hikes.

We welcome Jay Heck, Executive Director of Common Cause Wisconsin, to discuss the Republican effort to ram through bills that end the nonpartisan Government Accountability Board, gut campaign finance laws and restrict voter registration. We talk about the surreal story that the CEO of WEDC toured a fake factory with fake equipment and GOP efforts to allow concealed carry in UW buildings. We also review the first Democratic presidential debate.

We welcome Ruth Conniff, Editor-in-Chief of The Progressive, to talk about Scott Walker's return to "governing" in Wisconsin and potential opportunities for the progressive movement. Ruth discusses The Progressive's Public School Shakedown Project that is exposing the privatizers of public education and highlighting people on the front lines of public education. We also discuss conservative legislative efforts to gut GAB and the civil service, and reveal a new bigoted bill that targets transgender youth in Wisconsin schools.

We welcome Anthony Alvarado from Rise Together for a special interview to discuss the movement to use healthcare centered screening to prevent youth substance abuse in Wisconsin. We discuss a report released by Rise Together, Citizen Action and other advocates showing 1 in 2 Wisconsin students who've experimented with risky substances continued to use. We review the report's progressive solutions to ensure more young people in Wisconsin stay on a healthy path.

To learn more and get involved with the statewide coalition of advocates and activists working to address the heroin/opioid epidemic in Wisconsin through early screening and brief intervention. Visit http://www.citizenactionwifund.org/sbirt.

To view the full student report, visit https://www.weallrisetogether.org/advocating-for-change/

We welcome Capital Times associate editor & Nation Magazine writer, John Nichols, to discuss why Scott Walker’s presidential campaign ran aground with GOP voters and what Wisconsin can expect going forward from Walker. John also offers his advice for progressive leaders on how to capitalize on this moment of opportunity in Wisconsin. We also discuss Citizen Action’s new Wisconsin Economic Opportunity Agenda to create good jobs and the increased role of healthcare in the developing Democratic presidential primary.

We welcome organizer, Anna Dvorak, to discuss the new Citizen Action Organizing Cooperative she leads. Anna joins the panel and helps us review the 3 hour GOP debate marathon. We also talk about new Democratic legislation to bring key functions of WEDC into a new state jobs agency. In addition. we discuss the closing of a Wisconsin voucher school which closed 9 days into this school year and the retirement of State Supreme Court Justice Patrick Crooks, creating a critical Supreme Court Election next April.

We sadly say goodbye to Jennifer Epps-Addison who is leaving Wisconsin for Los Angeles after a decade of leadership in Wisconsin's progressive community. The podcast will miss her! Michael Rosen, president of AFT Local 212, joins us to discuss the new Milwaukee Area Technical College’s “MATC Promise” which guarantees free tuition at the tech school for low income, recently graduated high school students. We also talk about Rep. Robin Vos’ latest effort to gut open records, a GOP legislator tries to blame WEDC’s failures on the former Commerce Department and we recap Labor Day 2015