Enrollment For Wisconsin's New Consolidated Health Program Higher Than Expected, Could Affect Costs

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 05 May 2008 - 8:00 PST

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Enrollment in Wisconsin's new BadgerCare Plus program has "far exceeded" officials' expectations, with more than 71,000 residents enrolling in the first six weeks of the program, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports (Boulton/Forster, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 4/29). The program consolidates and streamlines the state's existing Medicaid, Healthy Start and Badger Care programs.

Under the initiative, families with annual incomes up to 300% of the federal poverty level are eligible to purchase basic health coverage for their children for $10 to $90.74 per month, depending on income. Families with incomes greater than 300% of the poverty level will have to contribute the full cost for coverage -- about $1,089 annually per child -- and coverage will be fully subsidized for families with incomes below 200% of the poverty level. Families with incomes up to 150% of the poverty level will be enrolled in the program immediately after they submit their applications and will have up to two months to provide required documentation. Parents whose employers cover 80% of the cost of family coverage and undocumented immigrant children do not qualify for the program. The program is expected to cost $50 million over the next year-and-a-half, and the federal government will pay more than 60% of the costs (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 2/5). Officials had expected that an additional 26,000 to 27,000 eligible residents would enroll in the program during the first 12 to 18 months.

According to the Journal Sentinel, the high enrollment "will add to the program's cost at a time when the economy is slowing" and "could undercut the state's projection that the cost would be offset by streamlining state health programs, expanding the use" of HMOs and the premiums and copayments from beneficiaries. Enrollment could continue to increase, but officials expect that some residents will lose coverage because of failure to contribute monthly premiums. Gov. Jim Doyle (D) acknowledged a shortfall in the budget but said there are no plans to cut the program (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 4/29).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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