governor Walker

Over the past few months, as the state's Joint Finance Committee (JFC) has been listening to public comments and making changes to Govenor Walker's proposed 2015-17 state budget, AARP Wisconsin's top priorties have been to protect SeniorCare and Family Care from major overhauls.

We all know Wisconsin lawmakers rarely agree on anything. But one state-run program that receives praise and support from both sides of the political aisle year after year is SeniorCare.

AARP Wisconsin today applauds Governor Scott Walker’s announcement that Family Care will be expanded into seven northeastern Wisconsin counties that have previously indicated they are ready to take on the long-term care program as soon as possible.

MADISON, WISCONSIN – With a projected state budget surplus of more than $976 million by mid-2015, AARP Wisconsin was hopeful that Governor Walker – in his State of the State speech – would have placed a greater emphasis on providing long-term relief for those most impacted by the recession.

Last week Governor Walker announced that he would be calling lawmakers together for a special legislative session in early December in order to delay the deadline for shifting more than more than 100,000 Wisconsinites from Medicaid and the state’s high risk health coverage plan into the federal health insurance marketplace.

Rent-to-own stores typically offer consumer goods such as appliances, electronics, and furniture at a substantial markup over retail prices. Because these stores charge exorbitantly high interest rates, consumers – especially low-income families – can end up paying 2 to 3 times the value of these products. 

Even though Governor Walker did not include funds in his proposed 2013-15 state budget to expand Family Care into seven counties in northeast Wisconsin that are ready, willing and eager to take on the long-term care program, the fight for this expansion is far from over.

Responding to the governor’s budget address, AARP Wisconsin voiced concern over a lack of specifics about his plans to provide health care coverage to low-income childless adults beyond 2013, and his lack of response to requests for expansion of Family Care into eight counties that are eager to take on the state’s long-term care program as soon as state start-up funding is available.

AARP Wisconsin today expressed extreme concern and disappointment with Governor Walker’s decision not to fully embrace the expansion of Medicaid services, which would have assured sustained health insurance coverage for approximately 175,000 low-income Wisconsinites who have no children living in their household.

AARP and its Wisconsin members have strongly supported Wisconsin’s Family Care program from the very  beginning. AARP supported Governor Thompson when he signed the program into law in 1999 as a five-county pilot program to provide for the long-term care needs of our low-income residents.