WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — Wausau will play host to a hearing on potential changes to Medicaid and BadgerCare today at Northcentral Technical College, including the change to required drug screenings and charging monthly premiums to childless adults receiving BadgerCare.
Jon Peacock, Research Director for the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, says these changes affecting childless adults now could negatively affect families in the future.
Peacock said, “Often times, [childless adults] are caretakers of children, and, in many cases, they’re young women who are going to become parents later on. Women who have health care consistently through their lives have healthier birth outcomes than women who do not.”
While the monthly premiums would only apply to those childless adults with a monthly income of $200 or more, Peacock says that could be the difference between them being insured or uninsured.
“Those folks will simply drop out of the BadgerCare program, end up uninsured, and that increases the amount of uncompensated care that hospitals have to provide. In the long run, that’s going to cost all of us a lot more,” he said.
The hearing takes place at 11am in NTC’s Auditorium on 1000 West Campus Drive. This is the last stop before the recommendations are forwarded to the federal level for approval.