Saving by Insurance

Enrollment in Wis. health insurance plan suspended

Demand for a new state insurance program offering coverage for poor, uninsured adults is so strong that enrollment will be frozen at the end of the week and new applicants will go on a waiting list.

Gov. Jim Doyle said Monday that the demand for the Medicaid-funded BadgerCare Plus Core Plan demonstrates the need for national health care reform. The state plan, which took effect July 15, makes health insurance available to childless adults who earn 200 percent of the federal poverty rate, or about $21,000 a year for an individual or $29,000 for a couple.

Recipients have to pay a $60 enrollment fee as well as small co-pays but no monthly premiums. Coverage includes basic health care services, including primary care and generic drugs.

The Legislature only approved enough funding to cover about 54,000 adults. But 60,000 applications have been received so far, at a rate of about 500 a day.

Among the applicants are Tony and Pamela Camera of Genoa City. Both lost their jobs this year, couldn't afford COBRA insurance and instead enrolled under the BadgerCare program. Tony Camera said he recently was diagnosed with diabetes and needed to have access to testing supplies and medical care.

"There is no stigma to getting government-sponsored health care," he said at a news conference at St. Mary's Hospital.

The needs of people like the Cameras can either go ignored, and families can go bankrupt trying to provide for themselves, or government can step in and do something, Doyle said.

"I can think of no clearer demonstration of the need for national health care reform," the Democratic governor said.

Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus said the news showed that Doyle and Democrats have done nothing to bring down the cost of health care in Wisconsin.

"Instead of forever expanding government health care, we should be focused on making health care more affordable for families and small businesses through free market reforms that will lead to more access to quality care across the state," Priebus said in a statement.

Freezing of applicants for Wisconsin's program comes as Congress debates overhauling the U.S. health care system to protect millions who don't have coverage or risk losing it.

Wisconsin has the fifth lowest rate of uninsured residents of any state, according to data released last month by the U.S. Census Bureau. Last year, 9 percent of residents went without health insurance, the Census survey said.

Doyle has said that with the variety of state-backed insurance plans offered, all but 2 percent of Wisconsin's population has access to coverage should they want it. In terms of access, that puts Wisconsin second to Massachusetts, where health insurance coverage is mandated.

Demand for the program comes at the same time that Wisconsin's unemployment rate, 8.4 percent in August, is nearly double what it was a year ago.

Anyone who applies by noon Friday will get into the program, Doyle said. A new bare-bones program will be created for those on the waiting list, which Doyle said could grow to 20,000.

Unlike those in the program, those on the waiting list would have to pay premiums of $50 to $100 a month to ensure there is no cost to the state, Doyle said.

The Legislature would have to approve the plan. It would not be part of Medicare, so no federal approval would be necessary, the governor said.

"This will not be a Cadillac plan," Doyle said. "It's going to be a very basic benefit."

Details were still being worked out.

There are about 1 million people in all of Wisconsin's Medicaid health programs, including those in BadgerCare.

Given an expected rush in new applications before Friday's deadline, it may take the state up to two months to process them, Department of Health Services Secretary Karen Timberlake said. That is nearly double the current wait.