Frederica Freyberg:
Finally tonight, an issue that's going to come before the state Assembly. It's the state-run healthcare program called BadgerCare Basic. It's for people that ended up on the waiting list for BadgerCare, the plan that provides health insurance for low-income adults with no children. The basic plan is funded by the people on it through a $130 premium and co-pays. The income cut off for Badger Care Basic is just over $21,600 for a single person or $29,000 for a couple. We have been working on this topic and we're here to talk about it on Capitol Insight. You know the reason we're talking about this is because the state of Wisconsin has never done this before. They have a lot of insurance plans out there. Not like this.

Shawn Johnson:
For all of the ways that the state is involved in healthcare, there are more than a million people that get some form of health coverage subsidized by the state. The number of people who might sign up for it is small, but it's significant because it's something that's completely new for the state of Wisconsin. It's interesting because it's a microcosm of the problem in Washington.

Frederica Freyberg:
Some of the Republicans in Wisconsin are calling it Obamacare Light.

Shawn Johnson:
That may be a stretch. But it touches on an issue that was heated last year. It is a public option.
That's something that's not going to be in any healthcare bills that they pass in Washington. This is a limited public option for people who can't get or feel like they can't afford health insurance in the private market.

Frederica Freyberg:
Has it been tried before in other states?

Shawn Johnson:
I talked to a few national experts. They called it an innovative plan. If it works it might be unique among the states. I talked to Laura Tobler, a health expert with the National Conference of State Legislatures, she's cautioned that this is an important experiment for states and that states will be watching this. But she said other states have tried this before.

Laura Tobler:
At the end of the day, since cost is the greatest hurdle, it was difficult to make those programs successful without some kind of financial contribution to the premium or some kind of subsidy from the state.

Shawn Johnson:
And so, some kind of subsidy from the state is something the Doyle administration said that they don't want to do. They want this plan to be self-supporting from the premiums. If it's too expensive, if the premiums and the co-pay doesn't cover the bill, the state might have to pull back the coverage and you have the issue that people do not get the coverage they signed up for.

Frederica Freyberg:
We have spoken with an advocate for people seeking healthcare, Bobby Peterson from ABC for Health. He supports this, his agency is supporting this, but he said they feel like it's in the realm of maybe something is better than nothing. Let's hear him.

Bobby Peterson:
It's moving in the right direction. It's providing opportunities that are affordable for people to get basic care. It's not great or great coverage. It allows for hospitalization, but if you have a second hospitalization, there's a $500 deductible that you have to meet. A lot of folks are in a position that it might be they’re not going to go in at all or they're going to end up in medical bankruptcy from debt.

Frederica Freyberg:
Bobby Peterson said one of the other problems he has with this, and he does support it, but one of the problems is there’s no appeal process for people who are enrolled. If they have a problem with their coverage or otherwise need to contest something, there's no way to do that. And apparently the Doyle administration didn't want to put that into this plan because they didn't have the money for it. It costs money for hearing examiners and state attorneys and all of that. That's not in there and that's a big issue for the ABC for Health people. We know that this has passed the Senate, waiting to go to the Assembly... supposed to be close.

Shawn Johnson:
Yeah. It's significant. They could have taken it up this week. They decided not to. There's only a couple of more weeks that they could take this up on the floor before they basically dare one for the year. So I mean, this is an issue that's not an automatic one in the state Assembly it seems like so far. There's sort of a limited amount of time for them to act and the state has started to sign up people for the waiting list.

Frederica Freyberg:
We'll be watching it. We are out of time. Have a great weekend.