Free Republic

MADISON, Wis. — Some of the boldest reforms to public assistance in the nation may arise from the Wisconsin Legislature in coming months. Armed with the largest Assembly majority in 57 years and comfortable control of the state Senate, Republican leadership appears to be putting together the kind of ambitious reform agenda that could rival 2011, when the Republican-led majority introduced and passed a spate of conservative — and controversial — initiatives. On Tuesday, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, announced the creation of the Public Benefit Reform Committee. While the new committee’s chair or its members have yet to be...

Madison — More than 70,000 low-income adults would keep their state BadgerCare Plus health coverage for three more months and a larger and poorer group would wait the same 90 days to enter the program for the first time, under a plan advanced by the state Senate Thursday. The legislation passed 18-12, with all Republicans voting in favor and all Democrats opposing it, and now goes to Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who first proposed the measure to deal with the troubled rollout of the federal law often referred to as Obamacare. Sen. Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center) voted for the final...

MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has vowed to clean up the Obama administration’s mess, and he intends to do so without using any additional money from the state’s general purpose revenue fund. The Republican governor has called for legislation to extend BadgerCare coverage by three months for close to 80,000 Wisconsin residents while the federal government irons out the kinks that have massively disrupted the Affordable Care Act’s online exchange systems. Approximately 77,000 Wisconsinites were expected to switch from BadgerCare Plus — the state’s version of Medicaid — to the new federal insurance plans on Jan. 1, but...

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Roughly 92,000 people on Wisconsin's BadgerCare program will begin receiving letters this week from the state notifying them that their coverage is ending.

MADISON — Federal health bureaucrats know applying for health insurance through the federal health care exchanges won’t be easy. If it were, there wouldn’t be the need for tens of thousands of taxpaye- backed “navigators,” new positions that soon will be created to help steer consumers through the rough waters of Obamacare. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will provide Wisconsin with $829,300 in navigator grant funds as part of the $54 million HHS set aside nationally for one year’s worth of navigators. There is $1.7 million more available for community health centers through HHS. Republicans on the...

MADISON – Here are some lists you don’t want to finish first on: •Worst human being •Guy with most head lice •The naughty list (well maybe you do, you kinky devil, you) •Charlie Sheen’s ‘Hey, What’s in This Punch?’ party •The Society of Actuaries list of top five states facing the steepest health care cost hikes under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Wisconsin comes close to topping the latter list. The Badger State checks in at No. 2 on the Society’s ranking of states expected to be most impacted by underlying claim costs under the ACA, derisively referred...

Madison - Gov. Scott Walker's administration is returning a nearly $11 million federal grant that could have helped make cost-saving improvements to existing health programs for the poor. The money was part of a larger federal package that was given to Wisconsin to implement the federal health care law passed by Congress and President Barack Obama in 2010. After receiving criticism from conservatives that he was helping implement "ObamaCare," Walker said this week that the state would return the money and stop the implementation. But that announcement didn't highlight the $11 million, which would have gone toward improving enrollment systems...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Hey, Beth, you're next on the EIB Network. CALLER: Hi. RUSH: Hey, how are you? CALLER: Hi, Rush. Dittos from the diary state. RUSH: Thank you. CALLER: I am a medium-sized employer of an industrial painting company, and I can't find employees in this economy. RUSH: What do you need them to do? CALLER: Hard physical labor that apparently people don't want to do. But the weird thing is they don't know what the job entails until they come in, yet nobody is coming in. RUSH: Define for me in your business what hard physical...