Farm Bureau's Health Care Initiatives

Health care is the top issue of Wisconsin farm families. The Farm Bureau has been at the forefront of several initiatives to increase the access to affordable health care for farmers. Finding affordable health care that provides more than just catastrophic coverage is the number one issue on the minds of farm families.

Here is a summary of the major state efforts that Farm Bureau has advocated:

BadgerCare - This program began in 1999 to provide health care for children that come from low income families. Families that have incomes under 150% of the federal poverty level receive health care insurance, and those families that have incomes between 150-185% of the federal income receive health care and pay a small premium.

Farm Bureau supports BadgerCare, and has worked to eliminate depreciation from income calculation to make more farm families eligible for BadgerCare.

Private Employer Health Care Coverage Plan - This passed in late in 1990 to create a voluntary pool of small businesses and farmers in Wisconsin. The goal was to have one large pool of small businesses and farmers so they could ban together when purchasing health care. This pool would have the purchasing power of a large corporation. Unfortunately, no health insurance providers bid on offering health insurance to this pool because they determined that it was too risky and they wanted large start up costs to begin the pool.

Farm Bureau supported this to create a purchasing pool for farmers.

State Employee Health Insurance Plan - Farm Bureau backed legislation to open up the state employee health insurance plan to farmers so they could purchase the same health insurance received by state employees. Unfortunately the Department of Employee Trust Funds did not support opening up this to farmers.

Farmers that pay large premiums for their catastrophic care insurance and large deductibles would have been better off if they purchased their insurance from the state. The premiums for the state plan are not cheap, but at least farmers would have received health care and doctor visits in their state plan.

Co-op Care - This became law in 2003 and created five regional purchasing pools for health care. The Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives is working to get the purchasing pools operating. People that join co-op care would remain in the plan for three years. Providers would know what the pool looked like and how big it would be for three years, therefore could give a price to people in the pool for three years. This would avoid large premium increases year to year.

Health Savings Accounts - Farmers with a high deductible health plan are eligible for a health savings account, and an income tax deduction on federal tax returns. Farm Bureau worked to have the state provide a similar tax deduction, but legislation was vetoed by Governor Doyle.

Wisconsin Health Project - Farm Bureau is currently involved in the development of the Wisconsin Health Project, which has drafted a new way of funding and providing health insurance to every person under 65 through an employee and employer payroll tax. Farm Bureau has not taken a position on the program, but has been analyzing the cost-benefit potential to farmers

Return to Farmers Care About Health Care home page>>>

Go to Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation web site>>>