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Without issuing any press release or public announcement Ted Nickel did his “dirty”
How Can Walker Rationalize His Appearance?

Walker To Appear At MLK Ceremony
Gov. Will Start Day At Milwaukee Event

Posted: 6:55 am CST January 16, 2012

MADISON, Wis. — Gov. Scott Walker plans to participate in the state’s official Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday ceremony Monday.

The state’s ceremony is planned over the noon hour in the Capitol rotunda. It is one of several ceremonies planned to mark the day across the state.

Walker was starting his day at the annual Milwaukee YMCA Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast.

Nickel (pictured far left) quietly filed an official request asking the federal government for a three-year waiver from new standards requiring that health insurance companies spend at least 80 percent of premiums on medical care. The reform went into effect this year, and is part of the legislation that is most despised by the GOP; the national health care law, the Affordable Care Act – Obamacare.

Lakisha Stinson and her daughter, Rashyia, who was born last month and is healthy, live in a Milwaukee neighborhood where the rate at which African-American babies die is worse than Botswana.

In Milwaukee, babies die during their first year of life at a rate greater than all but six of the nation’s 53 largest cities.

In Milwaukee, babies die at rates associated with the Third World.

In Milwaukee, the infant mortality rate for all children, regardless of race, exceeds that of Uruguay, Bosnia or Kuwait.

The Walker Lie

Now Walker and Smith make it sound like they deserve the credit for Badger Care (Family Care) expansion!

For Immediate Release
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Governor Walker Announces Plan to Lift Family Care Enrollment Cap, Expand to New Counties
Legislative action needed to lift cap and expand long-term care program

Madison–Earlier this year an enrollment cap was placed on Family Care in response to a Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) evaluation which found a number of areas the program could be improved and made more efficient. After a briefing on the hard work done by DHS over the past couple of months, today Governor Walker announced a plan to lift the Family Care cap. Governor Walker’s plan also calls for Family Care to be expanded to additional counties.
Walker Press Release

Just for a Laugh – Read This Sentence from the Release

A very critical issue raised in the report was that the cost effectiveness of Family Care was difficult to assess. Because the Department was able to take the time to strengthen the program, Wisconsin now has the detailed data needed to develop solutions to ensure Family Care is on sound financial footing for those in the program now and for future enrollees.

The Critical issue – “Cost effectiveness was difficult to access” – yet they strengthened the program? No! They desperately used every deceitful trick like seeking a waiver to protect Insurance Company Profits!

Will Walker/Smith take full credit for Obama’s 23.1 Million Bonus?

Note the Bonus was a reward for children enrolled BEFORE Walker/Smith worked to CUT 35,000 families from the program:

“number of children enrolled monthly in Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) increased by 121,000 between 2007 and 2010. Wisconsin received the second largest bonus in the country.”
INCREASED ACCESS TO HEALTH INSURANCE FOR CHILDREN QUALIFIES STATE FOR FEDERAL BONUS
Wisconsin Receives $23.1 Million Performance Bonus for 2010.

Great News for the Children of Wisconsin – NO THANKS TO WALKER/SMITH

MADISON—Increased access to health care services for children through the BadgerCare Plus program qualified Wisconsin for a federal bonus of $23.1 million for this year, federal officials announced today. The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA) provides performance bonus payments to encourage states to enroll more uninsured Medicaid-eligible children and help offset increased enrollment costs.

Wisconsin received the bonus from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) because the average number of children enrolled monthly in Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) increased by 121,000 between 2007 and 2010. Wisconsin received the second largest bonus in the country.

.
Read Reauthorization Act Reward Document

To Add Insult to Injury

The video captures Scott Walker singing “We Shall Overcome” at the celebration at the Capitol at noon today.

Only a sociopath could lie in song in face of the memory of Martin Luther King.

Reposted from November 11, 2011

Scheduling or Strategy?

Time to Stand with Wisconsin

Double checking the map, Wisconsin is a gray shaded battleground state.

A day after his State of the Union address, President Obama visited the headquarters of power technology company Orion Energy Systems, Inc. in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. In a speech, Obama called for the U.S. to “up [its] game” in a time of increasing global competition. The decision to make Wisconsin the first state Obama visited following his State of the Union address was seen as making political sense, given the upcoming 2012 presidential election and the state’s central position in the “Midwest battleground”.Obama national visits

– It’s been a long, long year

Wisconsin has been engaged in the struggle of its life over the past 12 months. Many have noticed how Obama has been less than aggressive in his mounting the bully pulpit in support of the unions, teachers, seniors, and children of Wisconsin. As time passes without some message of strong support from the President through this whirlwind of vilification and attack, progressives can only begin to question his virtual silence through a challenged Spring Supreme Court race, an historic recall action against 6 GOP state Senators, a ruling of the State Supreme Court that dismissed the legislature from constitutional impertives regarding open meetings rules, and now, another historic recall effort against the governor of the state.

Bully Up

Why the silence? Wisconsin looks to Obama to take a stand against the Koch Bros., ALEC, Americans for Prosperity whose largess threatens the very heart of democracy. Secretary of Health Services (or Czar) sought a federal waiver exempting Wisconsin from receiving funds promised by the Heath Care Law that would leave seniors cut from medicare and families, mothers, and children stripped of the safety net of Badger Care. This at a time when the infant mortality rate in Milwaukee is that of a third world country.

Wisconsin is now in the midst of a historic recall of a sitting governor and four senators.

Climb up that bully pulpit and talk to us. We are on your side. We miss you.

Make No Mistake About It- Scott Walker and Health Secretary, former Heritage Foundation Official, Dennis Smith did all they could to protect the profits of Insurance Companies over the health of Wisconsin’s families and children.

On January 3, 2011 Just hours after Scott Walker became Governor, Dennis Smith was appointed to serve as Secretary of the Department of Health Services . Dennis G. Smith, a consultant with (ultra conservative) Leavitt Partners, is a former (Koch supported) Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow and former Director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Under Bush/Cheney). Read More – Let Him Die – Ayn Rand

The Walker/Smith Plan to Protect Insurance Company Profits

Smith (pictured right holding viagra “waiver” capsule) wanted Wisconsin to be exempt from a federal requirement on how much health insurers have to spend on patient care. Officials are seeking a waiver to what’s known as the “medical loss ratio.”

The “medical loss ratio” required under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is 80 percent of premiums. The act required that 80% of consumers money went to health care as opposed to administration, buildings, and comercials on PBS. Walker/Smith asked to keep the state’s ratio at 71 percent this year and gradually increase it to 77 percent over the next three years so the money would be kept in the coffers of insurance companies. Read Take Action Against Dennis Smith

If the waiver were not approved with 90 days – insurance companies would get to keep the profits. Smith/Walker played a political hour glass game with the health of Wisconsin families. This is the kind of ploy that is taught to legislators through the covert conservative organization ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council). Smith was confident that any review by the Feds would take longer than 90 days, and he would get his way to preserve insurance company profits. Read Wisconsin Death Panel

The Walker Lie

Now Walker and Smith make it sound like they deserve the credit for Badger Care (Family Care) expansion!

For Immediate Release
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Governor Walker Announces Plan to Lift Family Care Enrollment Cap, Expand to New Counties
Legislative action needed to lift cap and expand long-term care program

Madison–Earlier this year an enrollment cap was placed on Family Care in response to a Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) evaluation which found a number of areas the program could be improved and made more efficient. After a briefing on the hard work done by DHS over the past couple of months, today Governor Walker announced a plan to lift the Family Care cap. Governor Walker’s plan also calls for Family Care to be expanded to additional counties.
Walker Press Release

Just for a Laugh – Read This Sentence from the Release

A very critical issue raised in the report was that the cost effectiveness of Family Care was difficult to assess. Because the Department was able to take the time to strengthen the program, Wisconsin now has the detailed data needed to develop solutions to ensure Family Care is on sound financial footing for those in the program now and for future enrollees.

The Critical issue – “Cost effectiveness was difficult to access” – yet they strengthened the program? No! They desperately used every deceitful trick like seeking a waiver to protect Insurance Company Profits!

Will Walker/Smith take full credit for Obama’s 23.1 Million Bonus?

Note the Bonus was a reward for children enrolled BEFORE Walker/Smith worked to CUT 35,000 families from the program:

“number of children enrolled monthly in Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) increased by 121,000 between 2007 and 2010. Wisconsin received the second largest bonus in the country.”
INCREASED ACCESS TO HEALTH INSURANCE FOR CHILDREN QUALIFIES STATE FOR FEDERAL BONUS
Wisconsin Receives $23.1 Million Performance Bonus for 2010.

Great News for the Children of Wisconsin – NO THANKS TO WALKER/SMITH

MADISON—Increased access to health care services for children through the BadgerCare Plus program qualified Wisconsin for a federal bonus of $23.1 million for this year, federal officials announced today. The Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA) provides performance bonus payments to encourage states to enroll more uninsured Medicaid-eligible children and help offset increased enrollment costs.

Wisconsin received the bonus from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) because the average number of children enrolled monthly in Children’s Health Insurance Programs (CHIP) increased by 121,000 between 2007 and 2010. Wisconsin received the second largest bonus in the country.

.
Read Reauthorization Act Reward Document

Not so long ago, I would go to my face book page and read posts about new babies, a friend’s favorite music but only an occasional mention of the politics of Wisconsin. That was before Walker, Fitzgerald, and the GOP control of the legislature. Yes. That was before. Why was I so unaware of the first rumblings of the massive quake about to devastate a pattern of fair play, compromise, and respect that I had grown up with in my home State of Wisconsin? The media and the polls began to suggest that Feingold and Barrett were in trouble and this news was reinforced by an inordinate number of green “Johnson for Senate” signs along the highways and by ways of my travels. Somehow, I could not or would not believe it. Would Wisconsin really give up a leader like Russ Feingold? Would this pale, uneducated, candidate for Governor ever get more votes than Barrett? No. I would not believe it.

So, the people went over the loses, as after a poor round of golf, checking the score card of their district and State. We all had lost Russ Feingold to a barrage of attacks that, we thought surely, no one would believe. Some districts did fair better than others: Ron Kind over Kapanke was the saving grace of my little world. We all had to face the loss of Barrett to Walker and met the facts with attitude; we would grin and bear it. We had survived Thompson and other Governors. This would pass. We would be more watchful, and surely this would pass.

Then it got scary. The refusal to accept the federal funding for rapid rail, and stoppage of the clean burning incineration project could almost be expected. Then came the unimaginable. The slap in the face of all that was Wisconsin; Walker’s budget repair bill that would hinge on the curtailing the collective bargaining rights for most public employees; a threat which came with a icy authoritarian stab of calling out the National Guard to curtail any public protest. At first, it was like a punch in the gut taking the wind right out of the air itself. A shock was followed by a moment of quiet disbelief. After the quiet, came the storm of unity, solidarity and protest that rocked the State.

And no words can capture a manifestation of human truth, although we may come close from time to time, yet the scientific expression of eternity is not a digit but a looped, bow-tie symbol. Some called it “The Awakening of a Sleeping Giant” or defined the unity of spirit with slogans; “We Are Wisconsin”, “This is What Democracy Looks Like”. New worlds were created, “Fitzwalkerstan” and “Walkerville” where palm trees flourished as fire fighter’s bag pipes, and a contentious circle of drums declared the new boundaries for a longing for freedom that stretched all the way to Egypt. All I know is that times such as these, these moments, open a portal of light and hope when it is a gift to be alive.

I was so anxious get behind Joanne Kloppenburg in the first election since Walker, that I miss spelled her name in my first post. The goal was set high; to defeat a long time incumbent Supreme Court Justice. Finally, the solidarity and new activism could be put to a unified purpose to win an election against all odds… and the election was won, but only for hours, before an off hand prediction of Walker, “Votes found out of the blue”, came to pass. An apologetic County Clerk from Waukesha, found 14,000 votes…somehow. The “somehow” raised the eye brows of the national press and sparked a state-wide recount. The discovery of ripped and torn vote bags, gaping breaks in the chain of custody, and impossible comparative voter turn out numbers left questions, suspicions, and anomalies that remain unanswered to this day. The air of fraud and incompetence surrounding the Waukesha vote count seemed to trip into another dark dimension of a hidden cloak room of the Government Accountability Board, and hand to hand violence in the chambers of the highest court. Attorney Verhoff filled months with a few pages of explanation that a did not rise to remedy but left a want for justice to be reckoned with on another day.

By some secret stroke of irony the “open meetings – collective bargaining ruling” of July came after a violent encounter behind closed doors in the Supreme Court Chambers, that we would only hear of days later. Even as Walker signed his bill into law, any celebration of victory was hushed. It was a hollow fantasy of words on paper, having won the battle but lost the war, and the trumpet sounded to carry the theme of fantasy forward, before the ink had dried on paper. Dr. Seuss might have written the script. Let’s have a fake election! We will get fake GOP’s to run as fake Dems or fake candidates in a fake election. The whole fake idea failed when each Dem Candidate beat each fake in each district in every case to the tune of a wasted a non-fake $400,000. Now the real history is upon us. The real 1st in the long story of Democracy. There is no precedent for the decision of August 9. The greatest number of state legislators ever to face recall on a single ballot was two, we look at six Statewide!

Scheduling or Strategy?

Time to Stand with Wisconsin

Double checking the map Wisconsin is a gray shaded battleground state.

A day after his State of the Union address, President Obama visited the headquarters of power technology company Orion Energy Systems, Inc. in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. In a speech, Obama called for the U.S. to “up [its] game” in a time of increasing global competition. The decision to make Wisconsin the first state Obama visited following his State of the Union address was seen as making political sense, given the upcoming 2012 presidential election and the state’s central position in the “Midwest battleground”.Obama national visits

February – November a long, long time

Wisconsin has been engaged in the struggle of its live over the past 9 months. Many have noticed how Obama has been less than aggressive in his mounting the bully pulpit in support of the unions, teachers, seniors, and children of Wisconsin. As time passes without some message of strong support from the President through this whirlwind of vilification and attack, progressives can only begin to question his virtual silence through a challenged Spring Supreme Court race, an historic recall action against 6 GOP state Senators, a ruling of the State Supreme Court that dismissed the legislature from constitutional impertives regarding open meetings rules, and now, another historic recall effort against the governor of the state.

Bully Up

Why the silence? Wisconsin looks to Obama to take a stand against the Koch Bros., ALEC, Americans for Prosperity whose largess threatens the very heart of democracy. Secretary of Health Services (or Czar) is seeking a federal waiver exempting Wisconsin from receiving funds promised by the Heath Care Law that would will leave seniors cut from medicare and families, mothers, and children stripped of the safety net of Badger Care. This at a time when the infant mortality rate in Milwaukee is that of a third world country.

Climb up that bully pulpit and talk to us. We are on your side.

Without issuing any press release or public announcement Ted Nickel did his “dirty”

Nickel (pictured far left) quietly filed an official request asking the federal government for a three-year waiver from new standards requiring that health insurance companies spend at least 80 percent of premiums on medical care. The reform went into effect this year, and is part of the legislation that is most despised by the GOP; the national health care law, the Affordable Care Act – Obamacare.

Lakisha Stinson and her daughter, Rashyia, who was born last month and is healthy, live in a Milwaukee neighborhood where the rate at which African-American babies die is worse than Botswana.

In Milwaukee, babies die during their first year of life at a rate greater than all but six of the nation’s 53 largest cities.

In Milwaukee, babies die at rates associated with the Third World.

In Milwaukee, the infant mortality rate for all children, regardless of race, exceeds that of Uruguay, Bosnia or Kuwait.

Would you take a second to help young mothers? Will you help solve the epedemic infant mortality rate?

You don’t need to march or occupy any street, building, or park. It takes less than a minute to sign a petition directly to the Obama administration. With 25,000 signatures the issue will be addressed and answered via email. You are not asked to donate or sign up for anything. Your only risk is to surrender you email address to the “We the People” petition site administered by the White House. Your action will send out an alarm about the Walker/Nickel secret waiver. Your action might help a pregnant mother, a sick child, or strapped senior citizen.

Please help. Please Sign and Share.

Another Shady and Secret Maneuver – This Time it is Aimed at Babies, Mothers, Families, and Seniors

How does one create a greater enemy of the people than Scott Walker and his administration? Charles Dickens might be hard pressed to imagine such a villainous regime as has been foisted on the backs of the folks of Badgerland. Not a week goes by without a new unethical trick, maneuver, or side long crash into the heart of state statutes, and constitution. The only fear is that the people have grown so accustomed to this unceasing dissonance that the constant sway against the harsh political wind has encouraged a complacent bend of acceptance or even apathy. How may petitions must we sign? How many signatures must we canvass? How much more can we possibly take? It’s gotten to the point where I feel I am retelling the same story over and over and just changing the names – Kathy Nickolaus, Prosser, Van Holen, Kapanke, Fitzgerald 1 & 2 and on and on.

The bottom line of “ENOUGH!”
Yet, with all the long fought actions of recalls, canvases, and perpetual activism there has finally come an injustice, a horror, and heart rending leap of inhumanity to which I must scream – that is when babies are allowed to die. That is the latest sociopathic action of the Walker administration. Like most of their machinations it is being done on the sly, without regard for legislative rules and behind the cloak of controlling spending, supporting job creators, and reigning in on government regulations.

Ted Nickel (pictured left in photo) is the grim reaper in the latest scenario. Nickels was a appointed State Insurance Commissioner by Walker in what appears to be yet another in a long line of pay-to-play appointments. (Yes. I have told this story before) Back in July the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign filed complaints accusing Walker and 10 wealthy contributors of 24 violations of state campaign finance law. Ted Nickel was just one of the contributors named in the complaint who contributed more than the $10,000 state law allows. Walker, Donors Accused Of 24 Violations Of Campaign Finance Law

Before the Walker appointment Ted Nickel was Chairman of WISCONSIN INSURANCE ALLIANCE. The Alliance is a campaign contribution wheel of fortune. The total Given from 2004 to 2011: $121,247 (284 records). You can check the link above for a complete and detailed track of Alliance money trail.

Ted Nickel stealthy scenario

Without issuing any press release or public announcement Nickel did his “dirty”. He quietly filed an official request asking the federal government for a three-year waiver from new standards requiring that health insurance companies spend at least 80 percent of premiums on medical care. The reform went into effect this year, and is part of the legislation that is most despised by the GOP; the national health care law, the Affordable Care Act – Obamacare.

Waiving these requirements is waving good by to a lot of money, and leads to cutting 350,000 people from Badger Care. The waiver will cost Wisconsin consumers millions of dollars in rebates that health insurers would otherwise have to pay back if their profits and overhead exceed the new standards. Note: this money would not come from government or tax payers, but from the insurance companies. Yet, Walker, Nickel, and Public Health Service Director Dennis Smith are all for it.

As usual, the Walker administration’s sympathy is not with Wisconsin workers struggling to afford health insurance, but with a for-profit health insurance industry that is enjoying record profits. Waiver

To add death to insult, this callous request for a waiver comes at a time when the infant mortality rate in places like Milwaukee is at epidemic proportions.

Why have Walker and Nickel done this quietly?

The Federal Government has 90 days to respond or the waiver is granted. The waiver request was submitted quietly because, if no one raises their voice, chances are the time limit will expire, the waiver will take effect by default, Badger Care will cut mothers, families, and seniors from its roles and babies will die.

Would you take second to make your voice known? Will you help solve the epedemic infant mortality rate?

You don’t need to march or occupy any street, building, or park. It takes less than a minute to sign a petition directly to the Obama administration. With 25,000 signatures the issue will be addressed and answered via email. You are not asked to donate or sign up for anything. Your only risk is to surrender you email address to the “We the People” petition site administered by the White House. Your action will send out an alarm about the Walker/Nickel secret waiver. Your action might help a pregnant mother, a sick child, or strapped senior citizen.

Please help. Please Sign and Share.

Post Fetal abortion is practiced daily in Wisconsin. It’s time to extend the pro-life vision for the protection of life past the point of conception and into the harsh reality of birth. The GOP, evangelicals, and faith groups will spare no measure to point out the injustice of ending the life of a fetus, but once that fetus becomes a real live and kicking baby, it is thrown out with the bath water.

Pro Life begins at conception – ENDS AT BIRTH

In Milwaukee, babies die every day. During their first year of life they die at a rate greater than all but six of the nation’s 53 largest cities. (Dennis Smith pictured left over empty cradle

In Milwaukee, babies die at rates associated with the Third World.

The number of infant deaths is staggering: 501 babies died in Wisconsin in 2008
That is more than three times the number of homicides, more than twice the number of drunken-driving deaths. In Milwaukee, the infant mortality rate for all children, regardless of race, exceeds that of Uruguay, Bosnia or Kuwait.

The factors that drive the leading causes of infant mortality also drive the leading causes of death, illness and disability for all of us.

The city Health Department on Monday is to release the 2010 Fetal Infant Mortality Review Report, based on an examination of all 499 infant deaths that occurred in Milwaukee from 2005 to 2008. In that time frame, for every 1,000 babies born, 11 died. “We have a public health crisis,” said Bevan K. Baker, Milwaukee’s commissioner of health. “We have moved beyond the tipping point.”
Read “For Milwaukees Children, an Early Grave” JS Online

How are Walker and Health Czar Dennis Smith facing this crisis?

They are seeking a waiver – a waiver to give insurance companies a viagra boost. In medical, political jargon the “waiver” is what’s known as the “medical loss ratio.” Wisconsin’s Commissioner of Insurance sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services requesting a change in a formula which largely determines insurer profits and the amount spent on patients. The request is to guess what? Lower the amount spent on patients, like the mother’s of new born babies.
Robert Kraig, executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin says allowing the state to go lower would not benefit consumers, “So insurance companies would be able to take more profit, more overhead and spend less on medical claims at a time when consumers across the state are struggling to afford skyrocketing health insurance premiums.”PREMIUMS, PROFITS AND PATIENT CARE

In case you were wondering what “Occupy Wall Street” and “We are the 99%” is all about – this is it.

The 1% in this example are the health insurance companies. The 99% are the dead and dying babies. The 1% is where the money is. The life expectancy rates for the U.S. were not published by the U.S. media, but by the BBC. Wonder why? The 1% are the insurance companies, Americans for Prosperity, and ALEC. The 99% are the mother’s, seniors, and families expected to accept cuts in Badger Care so the insurance companies can enjoy higher profits.

If the federal government doesn’t grant Wisconsin a waiver from the medical loss ratio, insurers which don’t spend at least 80 percent on patient care would have to give consumers refunds. If the waiver is not granted it will also save 350,000 people from being cut from Badger Care (many of the pregnant mothers).

You can take action

The We the People tool on the WhiteHouse.gov is intended to foster a focused and civil conversation about how the federal government should address a range of issues. Only petitions that reach a certain number of signatures, or “threshold,” within a given amount of time will generate an official response.

The current threshold is 25,000 signatures within 30 days.

We petition the Obama administration to: Petition title: Take action in Wisconsin against Secretary of Health Services, Dennis Smith’s request for a federal waiver. The goal is 25,000 Signatures by November 28, 2011. The issue will be addressed by the administration and a response will be personally delivered to you via email. Please use the sign and share options on the link below to alert your friends on face book and twitter to unacceptable infant mortality rates in Wisconsin that the requested waiver will serve to ignore. Read and sign the petition

OCCUPY

The 1% wants to cut Badger Care for the 99%

While Milwaukee has been shown to have one of the highest infant mortality rates in the country, Dennis Smith – Wisconsin Health Czar plans to cut 350,000 seniors, families and children from the Badger Care Program.

As with most Walker Administration events, the date was not released until Sunday Oct. 16 or just 3 days before the meeting in order to decrease attendance.

Please share this with your friends, and associates.

Town Hall Meeting On Medicaid Savings Initiatives

Goodman Community Center
Evjue Community Room D
149 Waubesa Street, Madison, WI
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
1:00 P.M. – 7:00 P.M

WHERE:

Mapit

Madison, WI 53704
Evjue Community Room D

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The state Department of Health Services will hold a town hall meeting in Madison about proposed changes to Medicaid.

Town Hall Meeting in Milwaukee Oct.21
Save Badger Care Coalition

On January 3, 2011 Just hours after Scott Walker became Governor, Dennis Smith was appointed to serve as Secretary of the Department of Health Services . Dennis G. Smith, a consultant with (ultra conservative) Leavitt Partners, is a former (Koch supported) Heritage Foundation Senior Fellow and former Director of the Center for Medicaid and State Operations at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Under Bush/Cheney).
More than just a the head of the Department – He is the czar

Smith was given unprecedented power through language buried deep in the budget-repair bill that would give Smith and the Walker administration unprecedented power to revamp the state’s Badger Care program without following the legislative processes, public vetting, and even state laws normally required.
Read more