Baldwin Pushes for Expanded Health Care Coverage for Children

Children from working families who have no health insurance could receive health-care coverage under a budget proposal that I am working on with my colleagues. Many working families have no health coverage at all because their employers offer no insurance and they can't afford a costly individual policy. The proposal makes health-care coverage for children more available, more accessible, and more affordable.
An additional 40,000 children from working families would receive health-care coverage through expansion of the Healthy Start program. Under the plan, children from families earning up to 200% of the federal poverty level would be eligible for health insurance. Currently, children from a family of four earning more than the federal poverty level ($13,330 annually) are not eligible for coverage. Under the proposed expansion of Healthy Start, children from a family of four with an annual income of up to $26,660 would qualify for health insurance.
The expansion of this highly effective and popular health-care program has been endorsed by leading Wisconsin physicians. It has also been endorsed by a non-partisan coalition of public heath advocates, including the State Medical Society, the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups, and the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families.
Opponents (such as those within the Assembly Republican caucus who voted against inclusion of this Amendment in their budget package) claimed that expansion of the program could cause Wisconsin to lose needed federal funding. However, the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau determined that the expansion would have no effect upon Wisconsin's allocation of federal dollars.
In May, Wisconsin's bipartisan Joint Finance Committee, which writes the state budget, adopted a provision to expand Healthy Start. Members of the committee noted that the expansion would save money for Wisconsin taxpayers by increasing the level of preventative health care available to children.

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State Representative Tammy Baldwin
P.O. Box 8952
Madison, WI 53708-8952
You may also E-Mail me at: tammy.baldwin@legis.state.wi.us
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