Battleground Wisconsin

Media Call: New Wisconsin Polling on Health Care Issues Impacting State Budget

Citizen Action of Wisconsin will be joined by Public Policy Polling and members of the Joint Finance Committee to release new poll results on key health care issues. The polling was conducted March 6-8, and had a sample size of 1,071 Wisconsin voters.

Questions include whether Wisconsin should accept enhanced federal funds for BadgerCare, and whether Governor Walker has responsibility to take action to protect Wisconsin residents from a possible U.S. Supreme Court decision that could take health insurance subsidies from over 184,000 Wisconsinites.

Citizen Action of Wisconsin joins State Senator Kathleen Vinehout and State Representative Melissa Sargent on a media call to announce a contingency plan in case the Supreme Court takes health insurance subsidies away from over 183,000 Wisconsinites.

The announcement of the legislation coincides with U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments on the case of King vs. Burwell, which could take tax subsidies away from over over 13 million people in states that did not set up their own federal health insurance marketplace under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act.

Participants on the call will make the case that it is malpractice for Governor Walker and the State Legislature not to create a contingency plan in the the Supreme Court takes health insurance subsidies away.

Many Wisconsinites just above the poverty line were dropped from BadgerCare by Governor Walker and the Legislature in 2014 and pushed into the federal marketplace. In addition, many people on the federal marketplace have preexisting conditions, and have no where else to go to get life saving health coverage.

Recorded 1:00pm 2/16/15

Citizen Action of Wisconsin will join State Representative Daniel Riemer on a media call to announce new Iowa-style legislation to accept the federal funds for BadgerCare and make private health insurance more affordable.

Announced on Presidents Day, those on the call will share how Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and many other Republican Governors have accepted the federal funds in alternative ways and how Walker can accept the funds to cover tens of thousands who lost BadgerCare and save the state hundreds of millions of dollars.

Citizen Action of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Council on Children and Families will host a media call to explain a new method for Wisconsin to accept the federal Medicaid funds for BadgerCare on its own terms.

If Wisconsin requested a waiver from the federal government based on Iowa’s approved model it would allow substantial federal funding to pay for Wisconsin’s current insurance options, reducing the cost of coverage and saving the state hundreds of millions.

Data will be released on the amount low income consumers would save. Savings to the state in the next state budget will also be discussed.

Speaking

Robert Kraig, Executive Director, Citizen Action of Wisconsin

Jon Peacock, Research Director, Wisconsin Council on Children and Families

State Representative Daniel Riemer

Kevin Kane, Lead Organizer, Citizen Action of Wisconsin

Report finds continuing regional disparities on cost, inflation, and quality Wisconsin Health Insurance Premiums Tripled since 2000.

Citizen Action of Wisconsin released its 9th Annual Wisconsin Health Insurance Cost Ranking report Wednesday morning on a statewide media call. On the media call to comment on the report were U.S. Congresswoman Gwen Moore and State Senator Chris Larson.

The full report includes 11 charts ranking the cities and regions of Wisconsin on health insurance costs, rate of inflation, and quality.

This year’s report finds wide disparities between higher and lower cost regions of Wisconsin, as well as large differences in the rate of health insurance inflation. There is a 22% variation in the large group market between the lowest cost metro area (Madison) and the highest cost area (Rhinelander), which amounts to a difference of $1,763 per year for single health coverage. On the small group and individual market, the report finds even higher regional disparities of as much as 42% between the highest cost and lowest cost Wisconsin city.

Governor Walker has kicked over 62,000 Wisconsinites off BadgerCare by rejecting billions of dollars in federal health care funds for the program. On November 4th, Vote for Mary Burke! Mary Burke will accept the federal funds for BadgerCare.

More than 1,100 members of Wisconsin faith communities have added their names to a "Faithful Citizenship" statement in the last few months. The statement calls on people of faith to consider issues of poverty in their decisions at the voting booth this November.

The signers come from more than 100 Wisconsin zip codes and from more than 20 different faith traditions.

The statement, and the list of people who have asked to be counted as supporters, will be delivered to the gubernatorial candidates, Congressional candidates and the leadership of the Wisconsin state legislature.

Leaders from the Wisconsin Council of Churches, the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, Citizen Action of Wisconsin Action Fund and WISDOM will hold a conference call on Thursday, October 23 at 9:30 am to discuss the statement and its implications for the election.

Members of the media with questions contact [email protected].

Citizen Action of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Democracy Campaign will hold a media call urging immediate emergency action to address conflicts of interest in the governance of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC).

At a time when hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin workers are in search of greater economic opportunity, the state’s scarce job creation dollars are a precious public resource.

Good government advocates will make the case that the flawed structure of WEDC creates an unacceptable risk of legalized bribery. The high stakes election this fall, and the massive amounts of money being raised and spent, elevate this risk.

Good government advocates will call for immediate emergency action to insulate public job creation dollars from political influence.

Citizen Action of Wisconsin is releasing a new report on Thursday at 11 AM analyzing 2014 small group health insurance rate variations between Wisconsin and Minnesota to determine which state offers more affordable health coverage for small businesses.

Like the well-documented individual marketplace rate gap between Minnesota and Wisconsin, the report finds a significant gap in the small employer health insurance market. The report provides regional numbers, making it possible to compare each of the metro area of Wisconsin to rates in Minnesota.

Under the Affordable Care Act, states have the tools to reduce the cost of health coverage for their residents. Despite individual market comparisons between Wisconsin and Minnesota, no research has comprehensively compared small group health insurance rates.

This report includes weighted average analysis of Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) options that have posted their insurance rates on MNSure.org and Healthcare.gov to determine policy impacts on premium rates.

Joining the call to discuss the implications of the findings will be State Senate Democratic Leader Chris Larson and Representative Jon Richards, Ranking Democratic member of Assembly Health Committee.

New Report: Wisconsin Health Insurance Costs Higher Due to State Actions

Statewide: On a media call Thursday July 3rd, Citizen Action of Wisconsin released “Taking the Next Step: The Role of States in Restraining Health Insurance Costs” (audio here). The full report uses statistical research techniques to demonstrate a relationship between state policy choices and health insurance rates. The report is based on first year 2014 premiums rates in 34 state which are publicly available due to the Affordable Care Act.

The media call was joined by Senator Minority Leader Chris Larson and Jon Peacock of Wisconsin Council on Children and Families.

The report reveals that 3 state policies that Wisconsin has not pursued have a measurable impact on the cost of coverage. Accepting federal Medicaid funds for BadgerCare, requiring insurance companies to submit proposed rates for prior approval, and having an elected insurance commissioner all are associated with lower health insurance premiums. The full report can be downloaded here. The report finds that the average Wisconsin resident will pay over $250 more per year because of failure to accept the funds for BadgerCare, while having a robust system of reviewing insurance rates could have reduced rates as much as $747.12 a year for the average individual plan.

Key Findings

In states that opt to reject federal Medicaid expansion funds, first year private insurance individual market rates are on average $373.68 per year higher.

States such as Wisconsin which took other steps to limit the "coverage gap" when rejecting enhanced Medicaid funds still had premiums $251.29 per year higher than states which accepted the money.

States with robust rate review which includes "prior authorization" for rate increases had first year insurance rate reductions of $747.12 on the individual market.

States with elected insurance commissioners experienced a $519.84 reduction in private costs per year on the individual market.