I haven't written much about Wisconsin politics here lately. For one thing, the legislative session is over for the year, so there haven't been any new laws in the pipeline to promote or resist.
But next week is a big one here in Wisconsin. On Tuesday June 5, voters will head to the polling places to determine whether Scott Walker gets to finish his term as governor, or whether Tom Barrett will step in to finish the term and try to begin to repair some of the damage that the Walker administration has wreaked on this state since January 2011.
Faithful readers may remember my spree of outraged, astonished posts in February 2011, as Governor Walker "dropped the bomb" (his own words) on Wisconsin -- blindsiding the state with an unnecessary "budget repair bill" carrying immense, devastating policy consequences for Wisconsin Medicaid, collective bargaining, and more. If the protests hadn't happened, and 14 state senators hadn't chosen to work from Illinois for a couple of weeks, that bill would have become law within a single week's time, with most of the public not even knowing what was in it, let alone having the chance to weigh in. Inaccessibility, autocracy, secrecy and flat-out lies have continued to be hallmarks of the Walker administration.
Here, by contrast, is Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett as he started his campaign a month ago -- reaching out to the "Stand With Walker" counter-protesters who showed up at one of his events:
Communication and listening and reaching out to ALL the people is so basic, and it's been so badly missing this past year and a half in Wisconsin. But what's at stake goes well beyond that.
Walker's Wisconsin represents a future that the wealthiest of the far-right have been coordinating and working toward in America for decades now. I didn't understand it until the events of last February opened my eyes. But it is real, it is dire, and it has been in process of happening for years now in this country. The end-game is plutocracy -- government by the wealthy, for the wealthy.
That's what the ginned-up anger about taxes is about -- so the wealthiest and their corporations can continue to pay less and less toward the common good.
That's what the privatization movement is about -- private prisons, private schools, private all-sorts-of-things that have traditionally been public enterprises but are in the process of claiming more and more tax dollars to the profiteering benefit of the few.
That's what demonizing unions is about -- the last coordinated voices on behalf of workers, who have already seen wages stagnate over the past few decades, falling further and further behind the rising cost of living, while CEO pay rises into the stratosphere and the wealthiest of the wealthy hoover up the lion's share of the past decades' economic gains.
That's why money has been defined as free-speech -- for the purposes of buying electoral majorities in both the courts and the legislatures, so that the plutocratic policies can pass with unstoppable margins. (Witness the astonishing flow of big-donor dollars, 70% from out of state, to the Walker coffers.)
Wisconsin's issues are a microcosm of a nationwide takeover. I've come to believe that plutocracy is THE central issue of the upcoming national elections this November.
We need to push back whenever and wherever we can.
And in Wisconsin, on Tuesday, we can speak via the ballot box against Wisconsin's Walker big-money juggernaut by voting Tom Barrett for governor on June 5.
The top definition in the Urban Dictionary for "mad props" goes like this:
"mad" = extreme; "props" = support (in a congratulatory sense) Mad props to the creator of this site!
In Wisconsin, mad props are due to a dedicated contingent of disability advocates who've been working on various legislative initiatives that were decided this month in the Capitol. It seems almost strange to have so much to celebrate on the disability-advocacy front in Wisconsin, in a year when so many things have careened in such a miserable direction. But it's true -- and it was bi-partisan, too!
I wrote in greater detail on four big legislative wins in a piece on Daily Kos earlier this week, but here's the short version:
Big Win #1: We managed to halt a cash-grab of a bill, a terribly-flawed school voucher program written by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and called the Special Needs Scholarship Program Act. I wrote about it on Elvis Sightings back in May and July last year.
Big Win #2: The legislature lifted the caps on enrollment in Wisconsin's long-term care programs, fixing a serious problem that had been created by Gov. Walker's 2011/2013 budget. I've been active on this one too; wrote a personal take here called Freezing the Future last spring when the caps were imposed.
Big Win #3: The legislature passed a bill limiting and regulating the use of seclusion and restraint in public schools, an issue that falls disproportionately on students with disabilities. The vote was unanimous in both chambers!
Big Win #4: The legislature passed the People First bill, updating terminology in Wisconsin statute such that the outdated & pejorative "mental retardation" will be replaced with "intellectual disability." Another unanimous bipartisan win -- down with the "R-word"!
My Wisconsin Partners in Policymaking class had our fingerprints all over these. Many of us had been involved in one or more of these initiatives for years! Now that we were organized as a class, we went into high gear during the last month of the legislative session: testifying, organizing, and writing and calling and lobbying our legislators in person.
When we met last Friday just after a week of all these wins becoming official, we were ready to celebrate! Mad props to every last person in the group! To our great delight, we received an invitation as a group to attend the bill-signing event in Milwaukee in which Governor Walker was to sign Big Wins #2-4 into law! About half of our class were able to attend. (I didn't make it, but was there in spirit -- while hand-delivering thank-you letters at the Capitol to legislators on both sides of the aisle.)
Our training last weekend focused on the ins and outs of the legislative process that we'd just experienced so powerfully, with lessons and role-plays on communicating with law-makers, and how to craft a winning message on our issues. One dominant theme was the importance of a nonpartisan approach. We heard again and again that our issues transcend party lines; that there are disability champions on the right as well as on the left; that we need both parties on our side no matter who's in power.
That's a challenging lesson to internalize at this point in Wisconsin history. I've proudly staked out a personal partisan stance in full-throated opposition to what's been wreaked on Wisconsin from the right this past year. And yet, my Partners in Policymaking family (it's really starting to feel that way) has a range of partisan leanings. I was one of three Partners who sat for hours waiting to testify against the voucher-bill before the Senate Education Committee, sitting in solidarity on this issue right next to a colleague whose political leanings are quite different than mine.
I was tempted at that hearing to rail against the corporatist, cash-grab ALEC roots of the voucher bill, something that Rep. Mark Pocan (D) did very effectively later in the Assembly when the bill came to the floor. However, I resisted the urge and kept my remarks focused on Joy and on the substance of the legislation. Having done so, I was then able to take a thank-you letter to the office of the Republican chair of the Senate Education Committee, and have a cordial and productive conversation with the clerk who had staffed the hearing for him.
I don't know who in our Partners group has signed the recall petition, but I know that it didn't really matter when it came time for people to decide whether or not to attend the bill-signing ceremony. The importance of the legislative victories FAR outweighed any political point-scoring maneuvers. We were enjoined to keep the date & time of the signing a secret such that political protest would not overshadow the content of our victories, and we all did so. After all, it takes a governor to sign a bill into law, and we've got the governor that we've got, not the governor that some of us might wish to have!
Being present at the signing was a powerful experience for my Partners colleagues, as evidenced in post-signing blogging -- there were a ton of photos and stories on Facebook as well. It was jarring and dis-heartening after the ceremony, then, to learn that a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin had made the following statement to a news reporter about Governor Walker and the event:
"It’s pretty shocking that he’s using a community that he’s almost ground underfoot in this budget as props, as he’s seeking recall here."
Props. The spokesman for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin thinks that all those incredibly hard-working, politically-savvy, overwhelmingly-committed disability advocates at the bill-signing were nothing more than mindless props for Governor Walker.
We're not props. And being called props makes us... well, MAD.
Both I and another Partners colleague wrote letters to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, pointing out the error of the spokesman's ways.
We need to work with both parties, celebrate what both parties do right, and hold them accountable for what they don't.
And with that, I promise that the next post will be much more Joy-centric! Because that's what all this policy stuff is about. It's about people, and making better lives for all of us.
You won't hear about it in the national news, because they didn't care to cover it. Not a single national news truck was there; the only national news figure was Ed Schultz, and he was there to march with the firefighters (though I'm sure he'll report on it in his Monday show.)
Besides, there was no riot. In fact, there wasn't a single arrest.
Somewhere between 25,000 and 40,000 protesters converged on downtown Madison Saturday to fill the Capitol Square -- and the Capitol Building -- with a determined reprise of our gatherings this past February.
The occasion was this week's launch of the signature-gathering drive to recall Governor Scott Walker, who bulldozed into office this past January with a secret agenda, heavily-funded by ultra-wealthy out-of-state corporate string-pullers.
That secret agenda has since marched forward in lock step with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), that secretive organization where corporate representatives and Republican state legislators get together to write legislation to the benefit of the corporations. Then the legislators take the agreed-upon texts back to their states and we get waves of cookie-cutter efforts at:
privatization of activities funded by tax dollars, such as education and health care -- corporate profiteers want those lovely other-people's-tax-dollars to redound to their own benefit, while paying as little as possible in taxes themselves
consolidation of political power -- union-busting is a two-fer, as they get workers disempowered both on the job and in the political sphere. But power-grab is also at the heart of the Voter ID laws, which seek to disenfranchise groups that tend to vote Democratic: African-Americans, the poor, people with disabilities.
rolling back environmental protections -- after all, what corporation wants to pay for that sort of stuff?
tax cuts for the wealthy and -- of course -- corporations.
ALEC's secret database of agreed-upon cookie-cutter legislation was laid bare this summer by the Madison-based Center for Media and Democracy, at the ALEC Exposed web site. The legislation templates are no longer secret -- it's no use to deny the extent to which this legislative assault on the average American (the 99%, if you well) is coming directly from the corporate string-pullers via ALEC.
I've had rather a dry spell of political writing since the summer senatorial recalls here in Wisconsin. That long, exhausting effort did not manage to change the majority in the Wisconsin State Senate, though we flipped two seats such that the Republican majority is a single vote, 17-16. The slightly-swingy nature of that single vote majority has at least curbed a few of the worst proposed excesses, but isn't enough protection against the overall Walker juggernaut.
Since the summer recalls, the Medicaid slashing that I wrote so much about in February has rolled forward toward predictable devastation. The Wisconsin budget bill set the terms -- over $500 million in cuts, to be specified later, and the the full legislature wouldn't vote on the specifics of the cuts even if they went against current law. Those cuts have now been specified and voted in by the Joint Finance Committee, along party lines of course. The proposal agreed to by the JFC is projected to result in nearly 65,000 people losing Medicaid coverage, due to things like changed eligibility or income limits, or higher premiums, or if their employer offers insurance (even if it's expensive and crappy and they can't afford it -- I'm looking at YOU, WalMart.) To go into effect, though, the plan needs to get approved for an exemption/waiver by the feds, because it falls afoul of some current federal requirements. If that approval is not forthcoming by December 31 -- an entirely arbitrary, self-imposed deadline -- they'll implement instead a plan that kicks off a different 53,000 people.
It didn't have to be this way. There was an alternate state budget proposal, called the Wisconsin Values Budget, that called for a much narrower Medicaid cut. And as an alternative to the proposal passed by the JFC, a Madison organization called ABC for Health proposed an alternative called the Pathway Plan for 2012, seeking a sustainable solution that actually expands the health-care safety net instead of devastating it.
Contrary to my initial personal fears, Joy's current services have remained largely unscathed. Her funding through the Children's Long-Term Support waiver has been frozen at current spending levels but not reduced; her Katie Beckett MA funds that cover diapers and co-pays were not cut either. The two-year freeze on enrolling new participants in the Family Care long-term care program may have an impact on her future, but whatever is up with that reality when she needs it is a long ways down the road for her.
But that doesn't mean that I had no reason to take Joy and testify at a Medicaid hearing at the Capitol the other Thursday. (The Joint Finance Committee declined to hold a public hearing, so the only option was to testify before sympathetic Democrats who aren't "in power" right now.) On the one hand, I didn't have personal testimony of impending healthcare disaster. On the other, "then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me..." In addition, I could bear witness as a member of my congregation, who have signed on as members of the Save BadgerCare Coalition (yes, we can do that -- it's issue-based, not party- or candidate-affiliated.) So I spoke my opposition, with my daughter on my lap.
And on Saturday, our whole family took to the streets with tens of thousands of our closest friends!
This was Joy's biggest rally so far. It wasn't until after the largest of the protests in February that we figured out a routine to get Joy downtown with her jogging stroller to protest and lobby. Now we're old pros, and so was she. We drove from our house right up to the edge of the rally within minutes, finding free parking just a couple of blocks off the Square! Then into the jogging stroller with Joy, and off we went, well prepared with stimmy-toys and snacks and Kleenex, along with food-drive donations ("Can" Walker!) and protest signs and camera. And warm clothes, of course. Would it be a Wisconsin protest without coat and mittens?
I had already signed the recall papers on November 15 (Day 1) for both Walker and Lt. Gov. Kleefisch -- if we don't recall them both, there's the possibility that Walker could resign before the election and Kleefisch would move up. Can't let that happen! However, JoyDad hadn't signed yet, and was looking forward to the opportunity. Lo and behold, there were signature gatherers right at the corner of the Square, so we could take care of that crucial business immediately.
Then it was off to circle the Square with the marchers, and revel in the energy and creativity. For example, we made sure to be on the State Street corner at 12:30 to catch the flashmob dance to "Forget You" (I see you causin' lots of trouble in the state I love, and I'm like, FORGET YOU!)
Then there were the signs, from the familiar...
to the artistic ...
... to the potty-humor!
My sign had two sides. I've gotten so experienced at hand-lettering, I don't even need to draft in pencil anymore!
And then there was Rose's sign:
Joy didn't carry a sign, but she did carry the whole event off with class. The entire hour and a half we were out there, she rode uncomplainingly, playing with Mardi Gras beads or pine needles and observing all the ruckus. The few times she tried to reach for someone's long hair or beaded fringe, folks were gracious.
The highlight of the event for Joy was encountering one of her favorite school staffers, along with two of last year's staff. You should have seen her face light up! And then she wanted to go right into playing some of their favorite games. Just a delight to see Joy welcome someone out of context and bring the context right along for the ride.
Overall, it was a remarkably satisfying event. And when we got home, we learned there'd been an announcement at the rally: from Tuesday to Friday, 105,000 recall signatures had been turned in, out of the 540-some thousand needed (though we'll be collecting 700,000 or more to have a cushion.) That's in just four days of the 60-day window, and that's without a weekend!
I think we're going to make this recall happen, and I can hardly wait. Recall Walker!
You would think that complying with a direct temporary-restraining-order (TRO) from a circuit court judge would be a no-brainer for the governor and legislators. Accept the judge's temporary order, play the case out, then appeal if you think the outcome was unjust.
But in Wisconsin, we've apparently got no-brainers in charge of both the executive and legislative branches.
At issue is Act 10, THE BILL, the supposedly non-fiscal version of the so-called Budget Repair bill (!!). This is the legislation that essentially kills collective bargaining for public employees in Wisconsin, gives the Medicaid-hostile Secretary of DHS unprecedented new powers, eliminates the organization that does payroll and beyond for Joy's respite-care provider, whacks the JoyParents' paychecks, and more.
As of this writing, we're on a celebration cycle: right now, Act 10 is NOT law and NOT to be implemented. The judge ruled yesterday that the TRO remains in effect until late May, when the legislative session is over and the Walker cabal can no longer declare immunity and have to haul their sorry selves into her courtroom so she can actually finish the case and make a real ruling. (Of course, if they waive immunity like their Democratic counterparts did, they could get this all over much more quickly. Likewise, they could just go back and pass the bill over again, but they're afraid they don't have the votes and they're worried about the protestors!) Expect shenanigans, expect appeals. And vote JoAnne Kloppenburg for Wisconsin Supreme Court April 5, because the state supreme court is where all this is going to wind up.
One thing it's hard to deny is that we're winning on the recall front. Less than halfway through the 60-day signature collecting window, the recall campaign has filed sufficient signatures to recall Sen. Dan Kapanke (R - LaCrosse). His recall election will be the first to happen -- more will reach their signature goals after a flood of signatures is collected adjacent to polling places on April 5. The recall organizers have announced that they're confident that there will be elections in six of the eight efforts to recall Republican state senators in Wisconsin -- which they wouldn't be saying publicly if they weren't very sure. SIX! And we only need to flip three of those districts to regain control of the state senate!
There's an inspirational recall-campaign ad that I'd like to share with you, that captures some of the passion and determination driving this movement. Well worth a minute of your time to watch:
Whether you're in Wisconsin or not, if you would like to affirm your support for workers' rights and beyond, you might be interested to know that there are events all over the country on April 4 and the week to come. Why April 4?
Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn., where he was standing with sanitation workers demanding their dream of a better life.
There are over 600 events scheduled across the country in the upcoming week in conjunction with this commemoration. Find one near you.
In the midst of all this, the JoyFamily received some powerful affirmations this week.
It dates back to the church retreat in February, the one at which I coordinated a craft-project to make Medicaid-related protest signs.
We had to leave early before the Sunday morning worship so we could take the signs to a Medicaid-related press conference. So we missed the conclusion of an activity that had been going on all weekend, in which every retreat attendee's name was written on a brightly-colored slip of paper and people could drop by the table to write anonymous affirmations.
The JoyFamily's affirmation slips made their way into our hands just this past Sunday.
Rose squirreled hers away to be a private source of delight. I'm going to share from the other three, though.
A snippet from JoyDad's:
"I really appreciate your thinking -- your knowing that what happens to one affects all."
A snippet from JoyMama's:
"You have such perspective on anything you're passionate about & you draw me into your passion. Love it!"
And the affirmations from Joy's sheet, in their entirety:
We are so glad you could be at Retreat!
I value all you teach us.
I love to see your smiling face.
You explore, connect, and explore some more. Thank you for your spirit.
Thank you for everything you teach us, and for being your unique self.
The tears are welling again as I type Joy's affirmations, as the tears came down when I read the sheet to her out loud. We are blessed, so wonderfully blessed, to be part of such an affirming and caring church community.
Actually, it's a cleverly generalized new utterance of protest.
I think it started as a "don't fence me in" kind of thing. When she encountered a door she wanted to go through, but the plastic safety-knob was foiling her, she'd demand "open" with a loud "P...puh...puh!"
That "p...puh...puh" has now become her generic noise of protest, to be used whenever she isn't getting what she wants, whether the remedy requires "open" or not. Then if we can't get her re-directed, the next step is the explosive acts we're familiar with: swatting, self/others bite attempts, pulling out her own hair though I've got it chopped down to under two inches long now.
I think I spent most of yesterday saying "p...Puh..PUH!" And it got louder in the evening.
I awoke yesterday morning to news of a blog-post by a prominent professor of history at UW-Madison. William Cronon, an even-handed, mild-mannered, non-partisan scholar, had published a magnificent blog-post the other week, detailing his findings on what organizations were involved in the flood of look-alike anti-union, anti-immigrant, anti-Medicaid, pro-big-corporation legislation that's been coming down in Wisconsin and other states. His scholarly March 15 post, Who's Really Behind Recent Republican Legislation in Wisconsin and Elsewhere? pulled the veil back on the secretive, well-financed national collaboration on the part of the Republican party that is resulting in... that which we've been protesting here.
Two days later, the Republican Party of Wisconsin set out to shut him up.
Wisconsin Republican Party headquarters served the University with a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, demanding all of Cronon's university e-mails since Gov. Scott Walker took office, containing any of the words "Republican, Scott Walker, recall, collective bargaining, AFSCME, WEAC, rally, union, Alberta Darling, Randy Hopper, Dan Kapanke, Rob Cowles, Scott Fitzgerald, Sheila Harsdorf, Luther Olsen, Glenn Grothman, Mary Lazich, Jeff Fitzgerald, Marty Beil, or Mary Bell."
First they want to catch him using university e-mail for partisan political purposes, something he's way too smart to have done. But secondly, they want to intimidate Cronon and anyone else who works at the university. And thirdly, it seems clear they want to comb through all those e-mails to find some snippet that (when taken out of context) can be used to discredit and embarrass him.
So after a day stewing about this, we get the evening news. About THE BILL that was rammed through the Wisconsin legislature via dirty tricks. THE BILL that was blocked by a temporary restraining order that had us celebrating a week ago, because now it was going to have to work its way through the courts instead of being published into law on March 25 by the WI Secretary of State.
Guess what, friends. They don't give a fig for the rule of law.
They ordered the Legislative Reference Bureau, a non-partisan agency of the Wisconsin government that analyzes legislation and keeps the archive of what's been made official... to PUBLISH THE BILL INTO LAW. Even though only the Sec. of State can do that, and he's been enjoined by the courts not to do so. And then, even though the LRB and a number of others have said that this end-run does NOT make the bill law, Sen. Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald has announced that they're going to act as if it's law anyway.
P...puh...PUH!
Once again, due to family obligations, we won't be on the Capitol Square this morning. Maybe we can take a trip there later in the day. I hope that the crowds are huge... and vocal... and continued non-violent, as we have so proudly accomplished through all these weeks despite the ratcheting up of the provocations.
Check out the lower button: Keep Calm, and Protest On.
I got these buttons on State Street the other Friday during my activist-date with JoyDad, an image that I had first seen on a portable sign at the top of Madison's State Street right near the Capitol. I loved it already without knowing its history. Now that I've looked it up, it resonates even more.
The underlying image is a poster that says Keep Calm and Carry On. The poster dates back to Britain of 1939, where (according to a well-sourced Wikipedia article) it was produced by the British government to raise morale under the threat of invasion. The poster was re-discovered eleven years ago and has been distributed widely since then.
Now, with the substitution of the word "Protest" for "Carry," it has become an iconic image of our Madison response. In many ways, it feels as if Wisconsin has been invaded by a hostile occupying force -- not through bombing but through stealth and lies and corporate financing.
Keep Calm, and Protest On. Here are the crucial upcoming voting-related priorities:
We won't bite. We won't pull hair, tempting as it is. We will keep calm, we will carry on, we will protest on. And we will win -- their very desperation is the best indication.
First, they came for Joy's parents' paychecks. [The increased benefits contribution in the so-called "budget repair bill" is equivalent to a 150% income tax hike for us, both state workers.]
Then, they came for her education. [The proposed state budget contains close to $900 million in cuts to state aids for public schooling.]
Then, they came for her medical assistance. [The $500 million Medicaid cut in the budget bill stands to be doubled by the loss in matching funds from the federal government, which would add up to a billion in unspecified Medicaid cuts.]
I've chronicled on this blog in some detail the years of struggle to force insurers to cover autism-related treatments here in Wisconsin. It took years of patient long-term advocacy (with some good old-fashioned hollering thrown in), but finally in 2009 it became law: insurers in Wisconsin were required to cover evidence-based autism-related treatments.
But now two new bills are circulating, expected to be introduced in the next week or two, that would undermine autism insurance and a whole series of other insurance requirements. Orwellianly-dubbed the "Health Choices and Opportunities" bills, they would set in motion a chain of events that would eventually allow the insurance commissioner to waive the mandates we fought so long and hard to put in place.
The ten hours per week of autism therapy that Joy now receives are covered by our insurance. This is coverage that her (currently-at-risk) Medicaid programs do not provide.
I am feeling bombarded.
And yet I know that as members of the middle class, with two cars and a modest home of our own and a job-and-a-half, we're still going to be relatively OK.
What of those who aren't OK now, or who are hanging onto OK by their fingernails, who will be far-far-less OK if all this passes?
This has all been sprung on the unsuspecting people of Wisconsin in the PAST THREE WEEKS.
Please help us spread the word, and keep us in your prayers.
=====
OK, here's the political action steps, for those who are eligible and feel so moved. I never thought I'd be this openly partisan on this blog. But it's THAT important.
Join Russ Feingold's Progressives United political action committee (you don't have to live in Wisconsin to do this one!)
Sign up to be contacted to recall Governor Scott Walker once he's been in office for a year.
Visit Recall the Republican 8, a site dedicated to recalling 8 Wisconsin state senators. (I was hesitant about this at first; but they didn't run openly on this extreme an agenda.)
It hasn't been the kind of week that serves coherence. So, today on Elvis Sightings, a heaping helping of stream-of-consciousness.
We all went to Grandma Judy's wake last night. It was so good to be with family, and to take part in this shared ritual of closure. Neither Rose nor Joy had ever encountered an open casket before. But Rose bravely went up to the front to "pay her respects" as we had discussed with her beforehand. Joy went up a little later in my arms. I think she might have been a little confused, as she reached out to Grandma Judy with an uncertain smile. I told her that it was time to say "bye-bye." She gave a small wave and an adorable spoken "bye-bye."
Goodbyes are so hard.
We had brought all sorts of tools and tricks to get the girls through the evening, from a portable DVD player & Baby Einstein to Rose's sketchpad and her little ZhuZhu-pet video game. But it was AuntieS who saved the day. She brought a brand-new travel set of the game Guess Who? that Rose could play with her cousin. For Joy, she brought one of those soft plastic bath-scrubby-poufs with a terry-cloth ducky in the middle. Once again AuntieS scored big, as she did with the curly-ribbons at Thanksgiving time. Joy spent the rest of the evening watching video and happily shredding the bath-pouf. Simply perfect.
JoyDad will represent our little family today at the memorial service and burial. It didn't make sense to try to chivvy the girls through a day as long as this one will be. I'll be there in spirit, though.
This all comes at the end of a long, hard week. It's been on my heart to join the amazing huge creative peaceful protests at the Capitol building, and re-fill myself with their hope and energy, but I've been unable for over a week. Schedule is part of it, and sickness even more. Both Rose and Joy were home from school most of the week fighting the flu, and I was trying to care for them and fight pneumonia myself. Thank heaven for antibiotics (for me), and for speedy recovery (for all of us.)
The events of the day in Wisconsin continue to seep into most everything we do. When I went to the deli counter last weekend, wearing my "Save Medicaid" sticker on my coat, the guy at the counter asked "So, what can I get for you? [pause] Besides a new governor?" When I went to the doctor with my complaint of sleeping difficulty and on-rushing bronchial issues, he asked me whether there was a movement to recall this governor who has pushed forward this extreme agenda so very far in excess of anything he'd campaigned on. I left with prescriptions for the aforementioned antibiotics, a sleep aid, and the doctor's personal e-mail address -- promising to send him the website address where he could add his name to the pre-recall database at http://www.unitedwisconsin.com/. (In this state an official must hold office at least a year before a recall can take place; at that time, there is a 60-day window to collect sufficient signatures.)
Healthcare workers and professionals are marching in support of Medicaid in Wisconsin today (Saturday), starting at 11am on campus at Library Mall. I wish I could join them, but I'm on childcare today. I'll be thinking of them, and looking forward to seeing pictures.
I was on childcare last Saturday as well, while JoyDad and brothers were helping GrampaK get some things taken care of. Let me be clear, I am ever-so-willing to hold up my end and do what needs to be done! but last weekend it meant that I ended up forgoing the opportunity to be in this political ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecsX7HxRork. I have not embedded the ad-video here because it is highly partisan, and frames the events in Wisconsin as a "war," terminology that I would personally prefer to avoid. But it's a powerful piece, and I would very much have liked to add my story and get a mention of Medicaid into the ad, something that did not happen in my absence.
However, it's not as if I'm lacking a voice this week. I've had the opportunity to have some of my writing published on a national level (under my real name, so no link here, sorry!) And that feels good.
After several weeks of high intensity, I do feel now that the initial frantic urgency of "Medicaid emergency and nobody even knows!" is receding. People do know now, and many other voices are being heard. It's time to take a deep breath, and move things to a level more manageable for the longer term.
Right after I write just one more blogpost / Facebook status / protest letter...
It wasn't just once either -- it was all of three times! Granted all three were echoes, prompted by adults. And I'm not at all happy about the incidents that prompted the need for apology: a hairpull, throwing a toy in the church nursery, tromping hard on her sister's toes. I'm simply rejoicing, however, that she's able to make that echo, no matter how much she understands or doesn't! It will make peer relations so much easier.
"Sorry" has a steep learning curve. I'm engaged in a process with a steep learning curve as well.
I gave a presentation last night to the adult Sunday-school class for my congregation, on Medicaid in Wisconsin and the so-called "budget-repair" bill. Members of our congregation have been deeply involved in citizen action in the wake of the various threats represented by the bill: to livelihoods, to the right to negotiate collectively, to the University of Wisconsin, to public education, to our economy as a whole, and so many more. People from our congregation have marched, written letters, signed petitions, shared information, and even had a group sleepover at the Capitol building on Thursday night (complete with kids!) I was moved by the enthusiasm at last weekend's retreat, creating a lovely pile of protest signs about the still-little-understood threat to medical assistance and public input that the bill contains.
At the retreat sign-making activity, I found myself asked to explain exactly what I meant when I said "Medicaid" and "medical assistance" and "BadgerCare," and found myself coming up short. Fortunately the press event that next afternoon got me started with a lot of information that I then wanted to share. I did share some of it here on the blog, but Medicaid is a complex program with many, many parts. I realized that I was feeling called upon to share still more, and to ask my congregation for further commitment and action.
So I offered to teach an adult Sunday-school class, and they gave it to me right away.
I wish I could do justice to the insightful questions and comments that came up during those 45 minutes. I was surely pushing the limits of my expertise, and others -- doctors, social workers, MA recipients -- chimed in with a will. One comment right at the end of the session, though, reminded me most poignantly how much I still have to learn.
I am coming from a frame where my family receives medical assistance funds for the purpose of making it possible for my daughter Joy to live at home rather than in an institution. During my LEND fellowship last year I heard a great deal about the history in Wisconsin and beyond of the policy shifts than now enable people with disabilities to move out of institutions into the community or to avoid institutions altogether, generally at significant cost savings. I also heard moving stories at last week's press event from people who rely on Medicaid dollars to live as productive community members, and are scared beyond belief that their support will be taken away and they will be warehoused in nursing homes.
This bias rang so loudly through my presentation that I failed to acknowledge the immense, vital role played by institutional facilities in situations where people's needs are so great and complex that living at home or in the community is not the best, or healthiest, or even survivable choice. And the commenter was deeply concerned about that aspect of my presentation.
So I needed to get called on it, a painful but necessary public corrective. Indeed, the voices of those who need such a level of care are even less represented than those who are succeeding in the community. Truly "the least of these" when it comes to having a voice in the public debate. Their funding is at risk too.
I listened. I let my thoughts be changed. I acknowledged my shortcoming, and apologized.
There is precious little listening coming from the Governor of Wisconsin and most of the legislators of his party who have (for the most part) been marching in lock step with the bill and its outrages and its timing.
However, word has it that one of the Republican state senators who has previously been in favor of the bill, has now changed his mind and says he will vote against it: Sen. Dale Schultz of District 17. He can be thanked at sen.schultz@legis.wisconsin.gov. Only two additional no-votes are needed. Update: the previous paragraph now appears to have been an unconfirmed rumor. Sigh.
There have been calls for Governor Scott Walker to begin listening, and mind-changing, and even perhaps apologizing. This scenario is not likely. But minds and hearts will need to be open to change, to negotiation, to the needs of the vulnerable, in order for the outcome of this budget process to be anything but catastrophic.
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So as to end on a lighter note, I'll close this morning with a joke that's making the rounds on Facebook. Peace out!
A unionized public employee, a member of the Tea Party, and a CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table there is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches across and takes 11 cookies, then looks at the Tea Partier, and says, "Look out for that union guy, he wants a piece of your cookie."
I awoke to the news that the Wisconsin Assembly had passed the "budget repair" bill, unamended, in a sudden rush vote after midnight last night. They ran the roll-call so quickly that not all legislators even had the chance to push their button to register a vote.
Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin is now holding senior Medicaid recipients hostage over the passage of a bill (which can no longer be amended -- the struggle is now to scrap it altogether) that would turn future decisions on Medicaid over to his own appointee Dennis Smith, who has taken positions hostile to Medicaid. His aim is to force the return of Democratic Senators who have left the state, to complete the forcing of this bill upon the state of Wisconsin.
Rose and I held signs at the front of the room at a press conference yesterday. The event was held to draw attention to the stealth attack on Wisconsin Medicaid in Governor Scott Walker's "budget-repair" bill. Several hundred people overflowed the room, braving freezing rain to come out and show support.
"Stealth attack" is not too strong a term. As I've written before, the Medicaid-related part of the bill is flying almost entirely under the radar, overshadowed by the outrage over the attempt to break public-employee unions (including public school teachers & librarians, setting the stage for immense cuts in education to come.) Now that events in Wisconsin have hit the national news, the story line is still all about the unions.
There's an excellent new article in the Capital Times called "Why Such Little Outcry Over Bill's Impact on Medicaid Programs?" (The same reporter interviewed Rose after the press event. We shall see...) It's been a complex story to try & tell, because the upcoming cuts aren't actually in the current bill. What's in the bill is the unprecendented and undemocratic authority to make future cuts behind closed doors, with neither legislative oversight nor public input.
Now that the press event has given me an eagle-eye view of who all could be affected, I'm more appalled and worried than ever!
Medicaid, otherwise known as Medical Assistance (MA), provides a health-care and community support safety net for the most vulnerable in our state -- seniors, people with disabilities, people with mental illness, people with low incomes -- using a combination of state and federal funding. Over 1.1 million people in Wisconsin, around 20% of our state's population, use some form of Medicaid. Numbers have been on the rise due to the impact of the recession.
The newly-formed Medicaid Matters Alliance, the organizers of the press event, provided the following information, which I quote here directly with a few asides:
• 775,000 children and adults have basic medical coverage in BadgerCare
• 90,000 Wisconsin children and adults with severe mental illness use Medicaid services
• 9800 children and young adults (0-21) with severe disabilities utilize Medicaid community based supports and medical coverage [Personal note -- Joy is among this number]
• 20,500 people with developmental and physical disabilities stay independent at home and in their communities with Medicaid funded supports [Personal note -- Joy will be among this number in the future, if the program is not eviscerated]
• 18,000 seniors stay independent at home and in their communities with help from Medicaid
• 90,000 Wisconsin seniors rely on SeniorCare for affordable prescription drugs
We don't know yet who amoung those 1.1 million will be targeted in the upcoming cuts, nor to what extent those targeted will be hit -- and if the bill passes, we won't know until after the cuts have been made and it's a done deal.
The speakers at the event were varied, passionate, compelling. We heard from:
-- A retiree for whom Medicaid is the only thing that has allowed her to scrape by and live in her own home, after the recession decimated her retirement savings.
-- a woman who has spent half her life with quadriplegia due to a car accident, whose active and productive life in the community is at risk (and who would rather die than be warehoused in a nursing home)
-- several people for whom Medicaid is a lifeline for aid with mental illness issues, either for themselves or their children
-- a woman who lived with an abusive partner for 12 years, who could not have taken care of her injuries without MA, nor could she have left him without MA healthcare for her children (2 of whom have disabilities)
And the stories kept coming. This has the potential to devastate SO many people, each with their own story that has brought them to need medical-assistance help.
There should be thousands of people storming the Capitol on this issue alone!
But the word is only starting to spread. And the people whom this most affects -- seniors, people with disabilities, people with mental illness, people with low incomes -- are not the ones with the resources to be easily able to hit the streets.
And if Governor Walker had his way, the stealth attack on Medicaid would have already been passed by now.
How You Can Help
People in Wisconsin: Governor Walker is saying that he's only hearing from people who support his position. Contact him and tell him that you oppose the undemocratic Medicaid process changes, and that they need to be removed from the bill. 608-266-1212, or govgeneral@wisconsin.gov.
There are four Wisconsin state senators who have yet to state a position on the bill. If you live in their districts, contact them with the same message as for Gov. Walker -- or if you know anyone who does live in their districts, get them to make the contacts! Click the links for contact information:
-- Sen. Dale Schultz of Richland Center, District 17
-- Sen. Michael Ellis of Neenah, District 19
-- Sen. Sheila Harsdorf of River Falls, District 10
-- Sen. Robert Cowles of Green Bay, District 2
Anywhere in the US that the Wisconsin story is being reported at all, a letter to the editor of your local paper would be a welcome help.
And finally, a fun morale-booster action step: Buy pizza for the protesters! Ian's Pizza by the Slice just off the Capitol Square, 608-257-9248, has been getting orders in from all over the country (& world). JoyDad and Rose and I availed ourselves of the pizza-generosity after the press event. Good stuff, great morale-booster!
Thank you so much for all you do. Keep spreading the word, friends!
P.S. TinyURL for this post is http://tinyurl.com/6k3hro3 -- please tweet widely!
(Tomorrow's post: Joy's friends make signs on her behalf)
First things first: There's a gathering/rally/press event on Sunday 2/20, 1pm, to bring much-needed attention to the Medicaid implications of the Walker Budget Repair bill. The event is a few blocks from the Capitol Square in Madison at the Madison Senior Center, 330 West Mifflin (click the link for a Google Map.)
The entire press release is appended to the bottom of this post. JoyDad, Rose and I plan to be there, and hope to see many-many others there as well!
I'm also including here a list of some central background links on Medicaid and budget repair -- a one-stop shop, as it were.
And the latest status of the bill, as of early-morning Sat. 2/19:
-- It has passed the Joint Finance Committee, with the addition of an amendment that "sunsets" the Medicaid-related process changes on Jan. 1, 2015 -- which is the end of Gov. Walker's current term, preventing any new administration from using the same ugly undemocratic process to change everything back. (It seems that the emergency only lasts as long as the Walker administration?)
-- The State Assembly did not vote on Friday, but adjourned till Tuesday.
-- The State Senate is currently unable to vote, since all the minority-party state senators have crossed state lines in protest of the lack of conversation/negotiation with Governor Walker and the incredibly rushed timeline for such controversial far-reaching changes. The Senate cannot vote, due to lack of quorum, until at least one of them returns. (Stay strong in your undisclosed location/s, Senators, and thank you for your courage!)
And finally, a Joy-story to tell.
Regular readers will remember that Joy re-started swimming lessons this January. After she had a wonderful first-lesson with a new teacher, that teacher left the swim school. We were reassigned to someone who didn't connect with Joy for the second-lesson. Then we had the chance to switch to yet a third teacher, who happens to be the same one with whom Joy had her first wonderful swimming-lesson experiences back in 2008.
Joy has now had two lessons with her third/original teacher. She is responding enthusiastically. I learned yesterday that the swim school has a new approach -- in addition to the report cards at the end of the session, they now give ribbons to mark when a swimmer accomplishes each skill in their level.
Joy got the following ribbon yesterday (it's really a neon-yellow with gold letters):
I look forward to being able to step back from blogging the politics of Governor Walker's disastrous budget, and tell more Joy-stories, but I'm also pretty much the only one I know who's blogging this part of the story, so it's a personal mission with me to keep the information flowing. I do plan to take a blogging Sabbath for an upcoming day here, take a deep breath, relax at least a little. But I hope to see folks at the event on Sunday afternoon, even if it's ice-and-snowing!
===================
Press Event to Support Wisconsin Medicaid and Raise the Voices of Working Families, Older Adults, People with Disabilities and Others with a Stake in Wisconsin’s Health
Sunday, February 20, 2011 1:00 pm
Madison Senior Center, 330 West Mifflin, Madison, Wisconsin (Google Map)
What: A press event to raise awareness of what’s at stake for recipients of Medicaid – including BadgerCare, SeniorCare, Family Care, children’s waivers and other vital programs in the Governor’s Budget Repair Bill.
When: Sunday, February 20, 2011 1:00pm
Where: Madison Senior Center, 330 West Mifflin, Madison, Wisconsin
Who: The Save BadgerCare Coalition and the Save Medicaid Coalition that includes a broad and diverse alliance of advocates for public health, disability rights, women’s health, the aging community, children’s health along with working individuals and families that depend on Medicaid including BadgerCare for their health, well-being and economic security.
Background: The Budget Repair Bill, even as amended by the Joint Finance Committee, threatens the future of Wisconsin ’s Medicaid programs that provide critical supports to more than 1.1 million people in the state. The bill gives sweeping authority to the Department of Health Services (DHS) to enact “emergency rules” that could significantly change the Medicaid programs and reduce BadgerCare eligibility for children, parents and uninsured adults; or reduce benefits in programs that serve older adults and persons with disabilities; and change co-pays and premiums without legislative oversight or any public input, which could have dire consequences for Wisconsin residents.
These significant changes to the administration of Wisconsin’s Medicaid programs are in danger of being overshadowed by the proposal’s other provisions which involve the rights of public employees. The public needs to be aware of the implications this bill will have for all those who rely on Medicaid; and that changes made today will have dire consequences for years to come that should not be underestimated.
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P.S. TinyURL for this post is http://tinyurl.com/646k42q -- please tweet widely!
My protest sign and I got our democracy on at the Capitol last night, to spread the word about the Wisconsin budget-repair bill's assault on Medical Assistance.
Here's the text from the sign as held by JoyDad in the photo. It says:
Did you know? This bill gives unchecked power to gut Medicaid with zero public input to a Medicad-hater you've never heard of!*
Ask me more...
*DHS Secretary Dennis Smith
I couldn't get down to the Capitol until after Joy went to bed last night. The schools are closed as the teachers take their consciences to the street, an action that JoyDad and I support even though it's been a challenge for Joy. The change in routine comes hard, not to mention having to deal with preoccupied parents, so she's had a short fuse and is really giving us a run for our money.
So my sign and I went downtown and the first thing that happened was, we got on national TV. The Ed Schultz show on MSNBC (9pm Central time) has been broadcasting live from Madison, doing a fantastic job of covering the protests and connecting the dots from Wisconsin to the corporate-funded effort to break public-employee unions nationwide. But he hasn't spoken about the Medical Assistance issue, so my sign and I went to see if we could be a presence. Alas, I landed on the wrong side of the crowd to be in the primary crowd-shots. But the people in the crowd where I landed let me through to the front line once they saw my sign -- "This is an important sign, let her through, we've got to let people know!" My big pink sign and I got a direct crowd-shot during the part of the show where Ed was talking with a state senator from Ohio, where the assault on the unions is now underway as well. JoyDad reports that the sign half-hid my face... but that's OK, I was holding it up on purpose so the camera could see.
I was on the right side of the stage to get a word with the producer of Schultz' show. I asked him if the Medicaid issue would be covered, and got a "no." Which I understand -- as I said, they're doing a great job of what they're doing. But perhaps Rachel Maddow's show might be willing to range more broadly...
ACTION STEP:
If you feel so moved, contact Rachel Maddow (Rachel@msnbc.com) and ask her to run a segment on the assault on Medical Assistance in Wisconsin. Send her a link to the story from the Capital Times at http://tinyurl.com/45qn78f or send her to this blog!
I also got a chance to thank John Nichols of the Capital Times for their fine coverage of the issue -- but it needs to go national.
After the show, Ed himself came down to visit our part of the crowd. I got his autograph on my sign!
Then my newly-autographed sign and I went into the Capitol Rotunda, where I met a friend of mine. By this time it was well after 10, but the rotunda was full of fired-up protesters, led by students who took turns standing on a barrel in the center of the Rotunda to lead chants and keep the energy going. My friend offered me a ride home (since I'd come on the bus, which is also under attack in this bill), so I was free to stay and talk to people.
The sign, word-overload and all, did a great job bringing folks to talk to me, who had no idea about the Medicaid issues. I was able to tell the story to a fellow who happened to be in a major education-related organization, who promised to spread the word widely to educators in this state who don't yet know.
Then a young woman popped out of the crowd to see my sign and ask questions. When she heard my explanation, she was horrified. And then she said, "Can you tell them (gesturing to the crowd) about this?" Before I knew it, I was being led to the barrel in the center of the Rotunda and handed the bullhorn.
The crowd was amazing. They had a mutually agreed-upon signal for "quiet down, someone needs to talk," so the two-raised-fingers peace sign popped up on hundreds of hands and they stopped the drums and jumping to hear me speak. And I told them, in short phrases, what the bill says about Medicaid. What the bill does to public participation on future changes to Medicaid. Who Dennis Smith is, and why it's so dangerous to give him this power. Where to go for more information.
Hundreds, maybe a thousand? activists at the Capitol now know that the assault on Medicaid must be removed from this bill.
Keep spreading the word, everyone! Keep calling & e-mailing your legislators, if you live in Wisconsin. Contact the White House, tell the president that we need his support here in Wisconsin. Come to the Capitol if you can. This is too important to stop now!
You can also "like" Elvis Sightings on Facebook in the right-hand sidebar to follow new posts. Only a part of my writing has been political, but right now this is where I get to spread the word.
(To my regular readers: JoyMama, standing on a barrel, in the Capitol Rotunda, at 11pm, with a bullhorn. Who would have thought?)
P.S. TinyURL for this post is http://tinyurl.com/5udd5s6 -- please tweet widely.
In autism circles in Wisconsin, it's often (and not-quite-accurately) referred to as "The Autism Waiver."
It's a section within a the Children's Long-Term Supports (CLTS) Waiver, allowing Wisconsin to use Medicaid dollars for intensive autism treatment.
My daughter received two years of intensive autism therapy through the autism section of the CLTS waiver and now has funding available through a different section of the waiver for things like respite, home modifications (like a plexiglass layer on our picture window so she doesn't bang her head through it), and more. The postive impact on her progress and on our lives has been astonishing.
"The Waiver" is subject to be changed/slashed without notice or hearing if the Walker budget-repair bill passes -- and it just passed the Joint Finance Committee last night, along party lines.
I wrote yesterday about the process part of how the cuts could be made. Today I want to emphasize that the intensive autism therapies are absolutely a part of this, even if the bill doesn't mention them by name.
Here's what kind of changes the Walker appointees in the Wisconsin Department of Health services would be empowered to make to MA and MA Waivers, affecting the autism community AND the broader disability community AND people with low incomes.
-- cost sharing could go up to the full extent allowed by federal law, and if people couldn't pay, they could be denied services.
-- modify existing benefits (as much as they want, as far as I can see!)
-- change eligibility standards
-- revise how providers get reimbursed
-- and more!
Again, as I wrote yesterday -- after the bill passes, this can all happen without public hearing, without public notice.
This analysis comes from a summary of the bill released by the non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau on Tuesday, on page 8 & 9.
The version that passed the Joint Finance Committee was amended to sunset the power to make these sweeping cuts by emergency rule: They'll only be able to work this way until January 2015. When Scott Walker's current term comes to an end. So any new administration would not be able to use the new emergency-rule process to undo the damage.
You should also be aware that the new Secretary of the Department of Health Services, Dennis Smith, is no friend of Medicaid. He has written in the past, during his tenure with the Heritage Foundation, advocating that states should DROP MEDICAID ENTIRELY. This is who will be in charge of the changes.
Time is short. The bill could pass within days, and the only issue that's making the news, that most people know about, is the union-busting part. Even if the unions are saved -- which I surely hope happens! -- the assault on Medical Assistance and the MA Waivers will go through untouched unless somebody starts noticing.
Make some noise, people! This is HUGE and it's happening RIGHT NOW!
P.S. The TinyURL for this post is http://tinyurl.com/4cnqmyx -- please tweet widely.
=========== Reiterating my new disclaimer (though it's always been true): I am expressing my own personal opinions, which are not to be construed as representative of any organizations or associations to which I may belong.
For years, advocates in Wisconsin have been working to make life better -- in some cases, make life possible -- for people with disabilities.
The process has been slow. It has taken years to create the programs and put the funding in place to allow people with disabilities to live a meaningful life in their communities, in their homes, with the healthcare support they need. Bit by bit, but with much further to go, the argument has moved forward: if you don't want to go back to the bad old days of warehousing people in very expensive institutions where lives were unbelievably difficult and generally much shorter, the public needs to step up and provide support.
This successful argument has won us the MA waiver that provides intensive therapy for children with autism.
We've won funding for health care.
For respite care.
For the home modifications that keep people safe and mobile.
For the supports that allow adults with disabilities to live in the community.
On Friday February 11, Governor Scott Walker proposed a so-called "budget repair" bill that will allow him and his appointees to restructure and slash Medical Assistance programs in Wisconsin. If this bill passes, the future slashing will take place...
Without public notice. Without public input.
The budget bill was released on Friday. A public hearing was announced Monday noon to take place on Tuesday at 10am, less than 24 hours notice.
They want the legislature to rubber-stamp this bill with a vote THIS WEEK. (And they claim they have the votes to do it.)
Very few people even know about the provisions of the bill impacting Medical Assistance.
The bill also eliminates outright the agency that coordinates Joy's respite care services, the Wisconsin Quality Home Care Commission. (The cuts in the respite funding itself will surely come later. Without public input or notice.)
Why don't people know about this?
Two major reasons:
1) The bill is loaded with outrages. The one that has been in the headlines, that people know most about, is the proposal to strip most collective-bargaining power from public employees, so that (for starters) the governor can implement a massive cut in take-home pay via drastically-increased employee benefit contributions. [For JoyDad and myself, the loss of income amounts to half our mortgage payment every month, the equivalent of a 150% income-tax hike.] The union-busting, an outrage in and of itself, also sets the stage for immense cuts in public education...
2) The timeline is appallingly, undemocratically short. The advocacy groups have not had time even to properly analyze the Medical Assistance provisions in the bill, let alone inform the public to get to the hearing and tell their stories. The hearing, by the way, is technically still underway as I write, though they adjourned temporarily at 3am and cut off the ability for further people to sign up to speak. People are sleeping-over in the Capitol rotunda in Madison tonight. I submitted my written testimony yesterday morning, but could not stay the whole day awaiting my turn to speak.
As I said in a letter to the editor that was published yesterday, nobody is arguing that there's not a serious budget issue in our state. Some pain will have to be shared. Tax increases will have to be a part of this puzzle.
Governor Walker's approach so far, however, has been to hand over millions of dollars in corporate tax giveaways during a special-session in January this year. In other words, making the hole bigger, so that the coming cuts will be even greater.
And the mechanism that allows unfettered cuts to Medical Assistance, without so much as public notice let alone public input, is moving through practically un-noticed.
Spread the word. Call the state legislators, or e-mail them if their phone mailboxes are still jammed full like they were yesterday! Write to your local paper. Hit the streets if you're anywhere near a rally. The Capitol will be alive with protest today, what with the Madison schools closed as the teachers go out to advocate for Wisconsin public education -- JoyDad and I support them wholeheartedly.
But if the MA issue continues to fly under the radar, the protests won't get that part of the bill so much as tweaked.
Please help!
==========
P.S. A little bit of wonky sausage-making detail for those who are interested in such things! According to the balance of powers in the State of Wisconsin, MA changes have had to go through a legislative process, either through direct legislation or through administrative rule-making. Both approaches require public hearings.
The budget proposal changes the requirements for the process. Changes would be able to be made via "emergency rule," regulations which could be created by the Walker-appointees in the Department of Health Services. Ordinarily, hearings must be held on emergency rules, and then after a specified period of time, the emergency rules must be converted into final rules, with another round of public hearing. However, according to the budget proposal, the new "emergency rules" slashing MA could be passed without hearing by the Joint Finance Committee, simply by the committee declining to take them up. The JFC is currently 8 Republicans, 4 Democrats. The committee WILL DECLINE to take up any proposed emergency rules that result in MA cuts. So the emergency rules will simply pass into effect in 14 days. No public notice, no public input. The bill also waives the requirement for the emergency rules to be revisited and converted into final rules. No chance for public input and changes there either.
P.P.S. As with any post here on Elvis Sightings, I am expressing my own personal opinions, which are not to be construed as representative of any organizations or associations to which I may belong.
P.P.P.S. TinyURL for this post is http://tinyurl.com/67awwje -- please tweet widely.
I recently had a visitor to this site who arrived via the following Google search: "state of wisconsin no cap on autism insurance"
I think this means that it's time to address autism insurance issues again! [Updated 11/13 to add: I am a well-informed lay-person on these issues, but not in any official capacity. (Want to hire me?) My links are good, but my writing does not have official backing or vetting of any organization.]
Here's the very quick recap: Wisconsin's governor Jim Doyle signed an autism insurance requirement as part of the state budget on June 29, 2009; requiring certain insurers to cover intensive-level autism treatment to the tune of $50,000 per year (with age limits and for a total of four years), and post-intensive at $25,000 per year (no age limits).
I'll do another post on how that's all going. It's been an interesting ride. Joy's experience has been relatively smooth, though not without frustrating questions along the way. Other people's experiences have been much rockier.
Now another very fine development is coming down the pike -- with the potential to be an immense help to some Wisconsin residents, but also adding an extra layer of confusion and uncertainty until the details are worked out. This new development involves the lifting of the $50,000 and $25,000 caps.
On October 3, 2008, then-president George W. Bush signed Public Law 110-343, the Paul Wellstone & Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. This law is aimed at group health plans with more than 50 employees that provide mental health and substance abuse coverage as part of their benefits. The law aims to ensure that mental health financial requirements and treatment limitations are no more restrictive than what the plan specifies for medical and surgical benefits. There's a fine factsheet at Mental Health America that goes into much more detail.
The Wellstone/Domenici Act of 2008 was initially supposed to take effect Jan. 2009, but the insurance rules were not hammered out and published until Feb. 2, 2010. Here is the link to the applicable rule in the U.S. Federal Register (in PDF). On page 11 of the above-linked rule, under applicability date, it says the rules are effective for plan-years beginning on or after July 1, 2010.
Governor Doyle heralded the federal legislation and rules, and made it very clear his administration's interpretation that mental health parity applies to autism, in a March 1, 2010 press release under the headline:
Governor Doyle Announces Expanded Health Insurance Coverage will Benefit Families with Autism New Federal Laws Will Further Help Children with Autism Access Full Treatment
[Update 11/13, paragraph & quote added] More importantly and officially, this is also the position of Wisconsin's Insurance Commissioner, as included in the final WI OCI rule on autism insurance, which went into effect this October. On page 4, the rule explicitly includes the position that federal mental health parity applies to autism in Wisconsin:
Although there is no direct federal guidance that autism spectrum disorders are subject to federal parity requirements, it is the position of the Commissioner that parity for autism services does apply to group health plans with more than 50 employees based upon preliminary review of the regulations.
We've been aware for some time that at least one of the large health plans in Wisconsin has been pro-active about lifting the caps for autism insurance coverage -- because if you don't have similar caps for surgical/medical treatment, you can't have them for mental health treatment including autism. For us, that's slated for January 1 when our plan renews.
However, we've heard that other plans are not addressing this, or have been trying to push the issue off till January 2012.
Part of this was apparently being enabled by the State of Wisconsin Department of Employee Trust Funds, the entity that administers health plans for State of Wisconsin employees. Their parameters for plans covering state employees were originally written to allow the caps to remain in place for the extra year. When JoyDad found out about this, the phone-calls and e-mails flew, buttressed by the links from the Federal Register and Doyle's press-release -- making it clear that the effective date needs to be January 2011 for state plans and that Governor Doyle's press release made it very clear that his office interprets the parity legislation to apply to autism.
It might have been coincidence (but I think not) when JoyDad got a communication from ETF saying that, after further review, their legal counsel determined that the autism benefit dollar limit would, after all, need to be lifted for state-employee plans beginning January 1, 2011. The correction has been posted, and here's the quote:
On Page 72, the Schedule of Benefits in Uniform Benefits erroneously lists dollar limits for Autism Spectrum Disorders. The bullet should be removed.
On Page 97, Item 6, Coverage of Treatment for Autism Spectrum Disorders erroneously lists dollar limits for the benefit in the second to last sentence. It should read: “Benefits are payable for intensive-level and nonintensive-level services.
Our insurance plan will be lifting the autism-coverage cap for our (state-government-employee) plan starting January 2011, as they had intended.
All the other insurance plans that compete for state employee coverage will have to do likewise. It's unclear what this may mean for their non-state-employee plans. If your health insurance plan in Wisconsin is not intending to lift the caps when your plan renews, you might want to use information and links from this post to help you advocate with them.
The upshot: Wisconsin state government employee insurance plans, and at least one forward-looking insurance company more generally, are lifting the autism coverage caps as of January 2011.
Other insurance companies are not yet on board.
Still other insurance companies are not included in Wisconsin's autism insurance mandate in the first place, nor by Wisconsin's version of mental health parity. A somewhat smaller set is not even included in the federal version of mental health parity.
And, there's been a big election here. For the past two years in Wisconsin, both houses of the legislature plus the governorship have been in the hands of the Democratic party. In the wake of the 2010 elections, all three have flipped Republican -- and quite hard-right Republican at that. I have been told that the new governor Scott Walker has some insight into, and support for, autism-related issues. I also know that the Republican party has not been supportive of insurance mandates in general. [Updated 11/13 to add the following sentence] And, the Insurance Commissioner is appointed by the governor.
Stay tuned. This story is still being written.
Meanwhile, if any of you know how mental health parity is playing out in other states regarding autism coverage, please share in the comments!
UPDATE 11/11 -- This post originally included a paragraph about 2009 WI Act 218, the Wisconsin Mental Health and Substance Abuse Parity Act, signed by Governor Jim Doyle on April 30, 2010, an act which in general strengthens the Domenici/Wellstone parity act, applying it to smaller companies than the federal legislation. However, WI Act 218 contains an exception for autism. The federal act contains no such exception, so the federal rules still apply when it comes to autism (as Governor Doyle celebrated in his press release).
