Two major health care changes in Wisconsin in recent years were designed to reduce the number of uninsured people, and a new report examines what impact those federal and state reforms had on coverage.
According to federal officials, the Affordable Care Act has brought down the uninsured rate 35 percent, nationally. Wisconsin’s uninsured rate is thought to have declined anywhere from 19 to 38 percent between 2013 and 2015, according to a preliminary report by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute .
The report by Donna Friedsam, the institute’s policy programs director, takes into account coverage from both the private insurance sold on the federal exchange and that received under Medicaid, called BadgerCare in Wisconsin, which Gov. Scott Walker restricted to those at or below the poverty line last year.
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“In some counties, the number of people who have lost their eligibility for BadgerCare seemed to exceed the number of people that had actually connected with new coverage through the Affordable Care Act,” Friedsam said.
Flat or declining coverage, provided by both ACA and BadgerCare, was noted in five counties.
The report said the insurance status for 62 percent of those removed from BadgerCare in 2014 is still unknown.
Walker set a goal of reducing Wisconsin’s uninsured by half with his reforms. The report shows the number of poor, childless adults getting coverage has increased eight-fold. But, other populations have decreased and the governor’s goal has not been met.
Friedsam stressed the figures are estimates based on preliminary data. Certain assumptions were made, for instance, in how many were uninsured before the ACA and how many were simply changing coverage.
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