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Health Care Policy Recommendations

Quality health care promotes healthy child development and ensures healthy communities for all of us. Currently, there are more than 90,000 Wisconsin children without access to health care. An even larger number of children do not have access to affordable dental and mental health services.  By expanding the state’s BadgerCare program to cover all children, funding innovative strategies to increase access to dental care, approving parity for mental health services, maintaining adequate funding for the state’s health care safety net programs and ensuring that bureaucratic hurdles do not prevent families from participating, we will make significant progress towards ensuring that all kids have access to quality health care. 

Expand BadgerCare to cover all children – The proposed BadgerCare Plus program would provide access to health care for almost all children in the state and for teens aging out of foster care, while also improving coverage for pregnant women and parents in farm families. According to the state’s Department of Health and Family Service (DHFS), the plan is cost neutral because it would save money by streamlining administration and increasing enrolment in HMOs.  It would also remove barriers to participation in the current BadgerCare program. To read more about this issue, see our brief summary: "Health Coverage for All Kids in Wisconsin: An Overview of BadgerCare Plus" .

Improve access to dental and mental health services – Many people who have health insurance are unable to get needed dental or mental health care.  The next budget should fund innovative strategies that increasing access to dental care, such as funding public health care clinics that include dental services.  The state also needs to approve legislation creating parity for insurance coverage of mental health services.

Maintain adequate funding for the state’s health care safety net programs and avoid barriers that deter people from participating – The governor and legislature need to adequately fund Medicaid and BadgerCare and ensure that these critically important health services are not eroded.  The budget should not be balanced by increasing premiums and co-payments, because that strategy has been shown to cause low-income people not to get needed and cost-effective treatment.

Do you have a health care story to tell or know someone who does?
WCCF is seeking to interview familes and individuals who lack health insurance
and who might be covered under health care proposals being considered by the legislature. For details, click here.