With the budget cuts occurring throughout the state of Wisconsin, thousands of families could be affected by the latest cuts to the state's Medicare.

On Oct. 28 Senator Jennifer Shilling and Representatives Chris Danou and Steve Doyle held a public hearing in room 337 at the Cartwright Center to discuss the proposed plans to the $554 million cut of the state's Medicaid.  This $554 million is one part of the $2.3 billion in tax breaks that will take place over the next few years.  This will affect thousands on the state's BadgerCare health insurance.

One of the ways proposed to cut back on BadgerCare is to increase the out-of-pocket costs for Wisconsin families.  This may leave lower to middle to class families unable to pay for health care and uninsured.  Ultimately, this could end with families paying for medical fees in the event of a severe medical emergency.

Another proposed action requires that young adults between the ages of 19 and 26 be covered under their parents' health care plan.   One fault in this could be that not all parents are willing cover their children.

The definition of a family unit is also changed by these new proposals.  The new changes will count the income of all people living in a single household.   This includes siblings, boyfriends, girlfriends, and even roommates.  The only people not accounted for are grandparents.  This could put many BadgerCare customers over the edge in terms of income, and many others would have increased premiums.

Even if this plan isn't passed by the federal government by Dec. 31, a backup plan will go into effect that will immediately drop 47,000 parents and 6,000 childless-adults from BadgerCare.  

Anyone between the ages 19 and 26 using BadgerCare must be under their parents' health insurance plan.   Many college students are independent by chance or circumstance.  This forces them into staying in the same plan as their parents.  Problems arise for parents who are unable to pay for the children.  At the same time, some parents choose not to pay for their children.

There are large concerns about students remaining uninsured. Representative Danou spoke at the hearing about a girl his wife tutored while at Steven's Point.  The girl was diabetic and was uninsured because her father was unable to pay for it.  One day she had a medical emergency due to her diabetes and was rushed to the hospital.  Unfortunately, she had to leave early due to her lack of insurance.  

The girl ended up blind because of her diabetes.  The irony was that as soon as she became handicapped windows of opportunity opened and she received all kinds of care.  In fact, Representative Danou's wife was tutoring her as a part of a program funded by this handicap care.

A senior student at UW-La Crosse also spoke up at the meeting.  Student Anthony Allen has a mother with a tumor and a father who was injured in a work accident and is thus disabled.  His mother isn't formally recognized as disabled. He states that the proposed BadgerCare changes will cause problems for his family since his sister and her boyfriend also live in his parents' house and their income factors in to the health care premiums.  This would in turn affect the care his mother receives.

In the long run, the effects of this plan will affect thousands of Wisconsin residents including our peers at UW-L.  The "Save BadgerCare Coalition" is working diligently to find a solution to these drastic changes.  You can find more information about them at SaveBadgerCare.org or on their Facebook page.  You can also talk with our state government representatives through the State of Wisconsin Legislature's website (legis.wisconsin.gov).