June 29, 2009. On June 15th, Wisconsin began accepting applications for its state-sponsored health insurance program for low-income, childless adults—the state’s most chronically uninsured population. Residents of Wisconsin can apply to the BadgerCare Plus Core Plan if:
- They are 19 to 64 years of age;
- They are U.S. citizens or qualifying immigrants;
- They do not have dependent children under age 19 living with them and are not pregnant;
- They are at or below 200% of the federal poverty level (FPL);
- They do not have health insurance at present or have not had access to employer-sponsored insurance during the past 12 months (with some exceptions); and
- They are not enrolled in, or eligible for, BadgerCare Plus, Medicaid, or Medicare.
The BadgerCare Plus Core Plan provides access to basic health care services—primary and preventive care and some generic drugs—to its enrollees. The Core Plan is funded through assessments on hospitals, federal stimulus money, federal Medicaid funds, and state and county dollars. The Core Plan is a part of Wisconsin’s larger BadgerCare Plus insurance coverage expansion.
State officials project that 40,000 to 50,000 people—out of 80,000 eligible individuals—will enroll in the Core Plan. Applications opened June 15, and in the first four days, over 8,000 people applied. Including the more than 12,000 individuals automatically transferred from county-run plans at the beginning of the year, the Core Plan is already about halfway toward its anticipated total enrollment.
To learn more about the BadgerCare Plus Core Plan, including eligibility guidelines and covered services, click here.
Co-principal investigators Tom Oliver and Tom DeLeire are conducting a SHARE-sponsored study evaluating BadgerCare Plus to determine the program’s effects on (1) enrollment and take-up, (2) churning, and (3) crowd-out of private coverage. Click here for further details about this project.