Background Information
Over the years, health care has been an important item of discussion within Farm Bureau. It is well known that many farms have had a spouse work off the farm in order to have health care coverage. Further, given the cost and accessibility of health care, WFBF has supported state income tax deduction for contributions to health savings accounts and different proposals that would expand farmers’ health care options, including support for the creation of the Farmers Health Cooperative which is administered by Cooperative Network.
Wisconsin has one of the higher health care coverage rates in the nation. Over 95% of Wisconsin residents have health care coverage. This is due largely to Wisconsin’s BadgerCare and Family Care programs. Originally, BadgerCare offered health care coverage to children in low-income families. Funding for the program was a combination of federal and state dollars. Over the past five years, the program has been expanded to allow any child to be enrolled into the program along with lower income adults without children. Family Care is a program created in 2006 that provides long term care coverage to Wisconsin residents under the age of 65. Through these state government programs, 1.1 million individuals receive health insurance.
Another 900,000 residents are over the age of 65 and are enrolled in Medicare, a program exclusively funded by the federal government. In combination, 40 percent of Wisconsin residents receive health care coverage through Medicaid and Medicare programs.
Participation in these programs continue to rise and discussions are occurring at the state and federal level about ways to contain costs. In addition, federal mandates requiring health care coverage are being phased in over the next few years.
Given this changing landscape, are there policies WFBF should be pursuing to help address the health care needs of Wisconsin farm families?
Current WFBF Policy
“We support continued efforts to develop a comprehensive solution for private, affordable, high quality, accessible health care and health insurance. We support allowing farmers and their employees to enroll in the state health insurance program.
We support the continuation of the Farmer’s Health Cooperative.
We support a requirement that all medical providers send an itemized billing to every recipient of medical services. We urge that insurance companies be prohibited from allowing health insurance groups to mature without adding new business.
We support tax deductible health savings accounts. We support changing BadgerCare and HIRSP eligibility criteria to exclude depreciation from net taxable income. We support 100% deductibility from income taxes for long-term health care premiums.”
Considerations
- Should existing WFBF policy be maintained?
- Now that health savings account contributions are tax deductible, should this language be removed?
- Should WFBF policy be modified to encourage individuals to obtain health care coverage through private insurance companies or government offered programs?
- Does WFBF support modify state Medicaid programs, BadgerCare and Family Care, to allow for tiered coverage, tiered deductibles, tiered co-pays, etc?
- Do you have other suggestions for health care policy?