ObamaCare Saves Wisconsinites Over $14.5M On Insurance Premiums

From the Milwaukee Community Journal,

"Madison – Americans have saved an estimated $2.1 billion on health insurance premiums as a result of two important provisions of Obamacare – officially called the Affordable Care Act – that protect citizens from excessive premiums. This includes 288,984 Wisconsin residents who have saved a total of $14,551,793.

In every state, insurance companies must submit a justification for public review if they want to raise premiums by 10 percent or more. This protects citizens from excessive – and unjustified – rate increases. Rate reviews have helped save an estimated $1 billion for American citizens, including $4,182,000 for 6,172 Wisconsin residents.

The 80/20 rule ensures that insurance companies spend at least 80 percent of premium dollars on patient care. Those companies that do not meet those spending requirements must write checks back to their customers for the difference. Americans have received rebate checks for $1.1 billion thanks to the 80/20 rule, including $10,369,793 in savings for 282,812 Wisconsin residents.

“Rate review and requiring insurance to spend 80% of premiums on patient care have brought transparency and accountability to health insurance companies,” said Doug Hill, director of Know Your Care Wisconsin. “Because of Obamacare, Wisconsinites are saving millions of dollars on insurance premiums. And for the first time ever, many are getting money back from their insurance companies.”"

Mitt Romney had the right idea when he laid the groundwork for ObamaCare as Governor of Massachusetts.

Stand with Wisconsin Women, Middle-Class, Elderly, Teachers, LGBT, Children, Poor, Minorities, and More

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has been recalled, and now it's time to replace him. In the year since taking office, Walker has fought hard against just about everyone in Wisconsin besides rich white males. The alleged criminal Walker repealed Equal Pay for Equal Work for women and minorities, discriminated against minorities in unconstitutional redistricting, reduced education funding more than any time in Wisconsin history, reduced teacher and public worker pay and benefits, killed any hope of jobs, banned hospital visitation for same-sex couples, raised BadgerCare premiums and reduced other healthcare help, repealed rights of middle-class workers, and a whole lot more. So, for us in the middle-class and the poor, we're getting far less for our tax dollars, while corporations and the rich are paying far less in state taxes.

Everyone agrees that to fix education, we need to pay teachers well. We all know the main reason that many good, intelligent people choose not to become teachers is because they can get significantly more money in other jobs. Why then do people think it's OK to reduce the already low pay for teachers? If you think this won't hurt our children, you need some education yourself.

And Walker's done it all under the banner of job creation, even though Wisconsin has lost more jobs than any other state since Walker took office and continues to bleed jobs with 6,200 more in April. Walker and the Republicans have refused to make any real effort towards job creation.

Instead of real job creation, Walker gave huge tax breaks to his campaign donors, the rich who are funding his 25 million dollar campaign, the billboards you see all over Wisconsin and TV ads. Walker did this even though there's every reason to believe tax breaks for the rich are bad for the economy. Even a Republican policy wonk recently wrote in the New York Times that taxes don't affect the employment rate one way or the other, particularly now with our taxes already as low as they are. The rich can't create jobs if the middle-class doesn't have the money to spend on the products and services the rich provide. We're the real job creators.

The rich clearly don't need more money, with the millions they can donate to Walker and use for billboards and TV ads all over Wisconsin. If they paid even half that much in taxes, we'd probably solve most of our budget problems. But instead they're using it to help Walker, because they know they'll save much more in taxes. And we suffer.

It's time Wisconsin starts sifting and winnowing again to find the best solutions to our problems, not partisan and ideological goals pushed by millionaires. We need a governor who will stand up to the demands of the rich few like Diane Hendricks (who inherited her great wealth from her husband).

If you stand with Walker, you stand with rich white supremacy and nothing more. Not jobs, morals or anything else. Show me otherwise, I'd be pleasantly surprised.

Vote for your economic interests and your neighbors'. Vote Tom Barrett. Early voting has already begun.

Wisconsin, What Are We Fighting For?

I've been trying to come up with a few words that can describe what we're fighting for, so that our message is delivered every time we're mentioned. The protests at the Capitol in Madison began because we were standing up for workers' rights. However, during the course of this battle, we've come to realize there are other interconnected issues such as corporate influence in our politics, voter rights, and tax policy, as well as other issues that are important to Wisconsin which are being swept away with little or no public debate such as education, healthcare, and the middle class. If we don't dig our heels in now, more of what we value in Wisconsin will erode away before the next election.

So, I've been using the words "Workers' Rights" because they were straight and to the point. I could use the words to describe the rallies as "workers' rights rallies" and immediately get the message across what's being rallied for. Yet, now we're really fighting for workers' rights and other things we value in Wisconsin and are proud to have, what could be called the "Wisconsin Way."

There's a non-partisan organization that was recently started by many prominent members of Wisconsin in business and politics called the Wisconsin Wave. The organization's goals are aligned with the ideas I've mentioned here, and I fully support the effort. However, because it's the name of an organization, I'm not sure using it would have the same value. Are the words "Wisconsin Wave" good words to describe what we're fighting for?

Let me throw out some other ideas, and then I'd like to hear what other people think.

Jon Stewart had his "Return to Sanity Rally," which I admit is a good name. Should we adopt this name?

From there, I thought of "Return to Reality," which has the same message. The only caveat I have for these two phrases is that they may be too strong. I don't want people to think that we consider anyone who disagrees with us insane or in another reality. I think they don't quite deliver the correct message. What do you think?

Then I thought of cheese and the slogans used for Wisconsin cheese. Are we fighting for "100% Wisconsin" or "Real Wisconsin"? I think these phrases have nearly the same caveat as the previous two.

At the moment I think "Wisconsin Way" is the best phrase besides "Wisconsin Wave." Or do we just keep "Workers' Rights"? What are your thoughts and ideas?

Wisconsin Wave

I just saw this article about the Wisconsin Wave, and I think it's what most of Wisconsin has been asking for. They had a rally Saturday at the Capitol with some prominent members of our state.

It's a non-partisan Wisconsin movement that stands for these basic things:

• Our state government must guarantee a fully funded public sector including education, health care, human services, transportation, public safety, and vital regulatory agencies.
• Taxes on large corporations and wealthy individuals should be returned to reasonable levels in order to solve the state’s fiscal crisis.
• The state must respect the rights of workers to organize unions and bargain collectively.
• Initial budget priorities must be established through public participation instead of closed door meetings between public officials and special interest lobbyists.
• Voting rights must be expanded, not limited, to insure that every Wisconsinite can take part in our democracy.
• Wisconsin deserves government of, by, and for the people, not the corporate elite; corporations have no constitutional rights and may not buy our elections or government.

Wisconsin Wave seems to be the most organized group aligned with the interests of the protesters, and it includes many leaders from our communities. We really need to get behind a few good organizations, so we can focus our energy best.

More Reactions From Gov. Scott Walker's Budget Proposal

Here's the executive summary.

Below are some more of my reactions from Scott Walker's budget proposal.

The budget proposal passes most of the hard choices the government needs to make from the state onto the local governments. By fixing the budget deficit largely through significant reductions in money to local governments, Walker is basically telling the local leaders to deal with the budget deficit instead of taking it on himself.

Walker says he's affected by the pension cuts in the budget, but he's not telling the truth. The WI Constitution says such changes can't take effect until his second term, if he has one. His office even says it believes his pension shouldn't be affected until his next term. So he's flat-face lying.

The budget proposal lifts the cap on the number of charter schools in Wisconsin, reducing the amount of money going to the public schools that employ teachers.

Did you know charter schools hire less educated teachers? We already know our charter schools don't educate our kids better. Charter schools hire less teachers with Master's degrees than their non-charter public counter-parts. While a Master's degree doesn't automatically create a better teacher, the in-depth knowledge acquired is particularly applicable in high school subjects such as math and science.

On top of that, Walker's budget proposal will eliminate the mandate requiring that charter schools hire certified teachers, lowering the education bar for teachers in charter schools even further. If charter schools what to have a whiff of quality, why seek to hire less educated teachers? The proposal would be a joke if it wasn't such an affront to the quality of Wisconsin's education system.

Walker's budget proposal also eliminates Advanced Placement programs that allow high-achieving students to get a head start on their college education instead of twiddling their thumbs in high school. The proposal also eliminates grants for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs, which are absolutely necessary for our children to compete in the new global economy. We want our children to be the next generation's innovators, not the next generation of McDonald's employees!

It's quite clear that Scott Walker doesn't have the proper knowledge and education to make decisions regarding our children's education!

Our water quality will be reduced to make our state regulations "no more stringent than neighboring states." The proposal also eliminates the requirement for cities and towns to recycle, eliminating state assistance to local governments for recycling.

No mention of why collective bargaining rights must be stripped or how it will save our state money. Mentions exemptions for police and fire fighters "to ensure no gaps in coverage from first responders." However, gaps in our education system and health system are fine with Walker. Think about how much more fruitful our budget discussions would be if this never entered the conversation. We have real problems to solve.

Businesses don't need more tax cuts to create jobs. Watch CNBC for a day and you'll hear how most mid and large businesses are holding on to their increasing profits. Just look at the stock market over the last year. They have money to increase wages and hire workers, but very few choose to do so. Businesses have been given large tax cuts and bailouts since 2008 to try to stimulate the economy. How has that worked out for you?

It's easy to see how tax cuts for the rich add a burden to those less fortunate. The amount people on Medicaid, the poorest in Wisconsin, must pay for their medical services is increased in the budget proposal.

District Attorneys are given funding for increased pay, the only people in the budget to receive such treatment. Do lawyers really need more money? The argument is to "retain experienced" employees. Apparently, Walker doesn't think we need to retain experienced nurses and teachers.

Our education system was supposed to be our vehicle for the future, and we all know it needs to be. What happened to that?

This budget may help fix the deficit, but it will not strengthen Wisconsin. We are taking money away from the engines of our state in order to give money to those who will sit on it. We need to fight for a strong education system and argue why those who benefit from the system and can afford to strengthen it must do so. Not all business leaders and rich people are ignorant, and many realize that such policies build a strong state which increases their ability to make money. Those people will gladly stay in Wisconsin and help to attract other like-minded individuals.

A budget is created around a set of priorities. Does Gov. Scott Walker's budget proposal truly reflect the priorities of Wisconsin?

Updated: (April 24, 11:12pm) Modified paragraph on Wisconsin charter schools, because I was incorrect in saying that Wisconsin charter schools don't hire certified teachers. According to the Wisconsin Department of Instruction, teachers at charter schools must be licensed. However, Walker's budget proposal will eliminate that rule, allowing charter schools to hire uncertified teachers. That's improving our education system.

I've had a difficult time finding recent unbiased research on charter schools, but I did find this 2009 study by the University of Illinois-Chicago. (Forgive me for using a study from Illinois, but it appears as though UW-Madison hasn't done a study since 2004, nor has it done a study looking at these factors.) Some take-aways from the study:

• Charter high schools enroll 6% to 7% fewer low-income students than neighborhood high schools. 
• Neighborhood high schools limited-English-proficient student enrollments are more than double those of charter high schools.
• Charter high schools enroll statistically significantly fewer students with special needs than neighborhood schools.
• Fully 55% of Chicago Public School teachers hold Master’s degrees compared to 43% of charter teachers.
• Chicago Public School teachers have, on average, 7.2 years more teaching experience than charter school teachers.

I did find a 2010 study of the Milwaukee charter schools, but the study brings into question it's bias when they specifically highlight "a few studies which are strongly positive" towards the performance of charter schools. Even though the study concludes very little difference between the performance of charter and non-charter schools, the study appears to be a bunch of guesswork, as is with most social science. I can't find any reason to give this study any authority. The previously mentioned study looks at several more factors using solid numbers, though it covers fewer years. It doesn't appear that Wisconsin has done a similar study, and that's unfortunate. We need such a study, because student performance is too difficult to meaningfully quantify in this way.

The CapTimes has an informative interview with a neuroscience entrepreneur-turned-teacher from New Glarus, Jon Joseph. They discuss things such as teacher workload, collective bargaining, and how we might improve our schools. Joseph's statements are rational and clear, and I think he has some very good ideas.