The federal government has signed off on changes to the state’s BadgerCare Plus program.
The state says it has received a federal waiver from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which will allow Wisconsin to drop about 77,000 adults who make more than poverty wages from the BadgerCare Plus program. The shift will also result in coverage being extended to about 83,000 childless adults currently living below the federal poverty line.
In a statement, Governor Scott Walker says the federal government’s approval means that “For the first time in our state’s history, everyone living in poverty will have access to health care through Medicaid in 2014.”
The changes were adopted through the state budget last summer and had been set to take effect at the end of 2013, but lawmakers later approved delaying implementation until later this year because of the ongoing technical problems with the federal exchange system. State officials say they now expect them to be in place by April first.
