By Marilyn Tavenner, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator
Fall is a wonderful time of year. Changing leaves. Cooler weather.
It’s also the season for people with Medicare to review their current Medicare coverage, as Medicare Open Enrollment begins.
As we prepare for Medicare Open Enrollment, which began on October 15 and ends on December 7, Medicare wants everyone to know that quality continues to improve both in Medicare Advantage and in the Part D Prescription Drug Program.
Each year, plan costs and coverage can change. During open enrollment, seniors and people with …

By Mandela Barnes
Despite his recent continued attempts to take credit for the success of Obamacare in Wisconsin, Governor Walker is directly responsible for the fact that almost 85,000 people, nearly 18,000 in Milwaukee County alone, are currently being denied access to Badgercare.
The governor unduly touts the 81 thousand-plus Wisconsin residents that got coverage thanks to the Affordable Care Act as a success of his administration.
However, his political stunt flies in the face of the fact that Wisconsin could have enrolled twice as many uninsured citizens and reduced deductibles by a …

By Kevin Kane
About once in a generation a visionary idea becomes law and has a striking and profound effect on the lives of all Americans.
Now that the first open enrollment has ended, we can say confidently that the Affordable Care Act is one of those visionary laws.
In the 1930s, that idea was Social Security, the belief that no American of a certain age should be thrown into soul-crushing poverty.
In the 1960s, that idea was Medicare and Medicaid.
In short order the freedom to access quality health coverage was extended to …

On the day the rest of the country is trying to extend coverage before the deadline, tens of thousands are being forced off coverage across Wisconsin
Statewide – At media events Monday in Milwaukee and Madison, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, faith leaders, elected officials and citizens losing coverage called attention to Governor Walker’s immoral decision to force 77,000 citizens off of BadgerCare on April 1st.
The media events included State Senators Jon Erpenbach and Fred Risser, and State Representatives Sandy Pasch, Melissa Sargent, Mandela Barnes, Josh Zepnick, Dianne Hesselbein and Evan Goyke.
The …

By Freddie Allen
NNPA Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON (NNPA) – With less than two weeks left to sign up for insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act, grassroots supporters of the mandatory law and federal health officials are rushing to enroll Blacks, other people of color and young people in order to meet the Obama administration’s goal of reaching 7 million people by the end of this month.
The administration has enlisted past and present NBA superstars Lebron James, Magic Johnson and Alonzo Mourning for television ads urging people to get enrolled by …

An important deadline to sign up for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace is quickly approaching.
The Social Development Commission is partnering with several agencies to help residents beat that deadline.
The ACA Marketplace enrollment ends March 31 for coverage to be effective in 2014.
To help provide information on the program and to start signing up, SDC is teaming with the Milwaukee City Health Department, Milwaukee Health Services, the Black Health Coalition of Wisconsin and Outreach Community Health Center.
Trained counselors from those organizations are staffing several SDC sites to provide information on …

Citizen Action of Wisconsin and Representative Melissa Sargent held a media conference call to release a memo by the Legislature’s Fiscal Bureau showing the impact of federal Medicaid funds from the Affordable Care Act on each county. While Governor Walker rejected these federal funds for BadgerCare, the state can accept them at any time.
Additionally, Representative Sargent proposed legislation last month that would allow counties to accept the federal funding themselves.
So far, 19 counties have already passed resolutions in support of accepting the available federal Medicaid funding.
The memo from the nonpartisan …

The Social Development Commission (SDC) will take a number of its most used programs to a Milwaukee neighborhood to make them more easily accessible.
SDC will hold an Integrated Mobile Monday on January 27 from 9 am to 4:30 pm at Greater New Birth Church at 8237 W. Silver Spring Drive. The agency is partnering with the congregation to offer SDC services to church members as well as residents living in the adjourning part of Milwaukee County. The day is free and open to the public.
SDC staff from programs including free …

By Freddie Allen
NNPA Washington Correspondent
As the Obama administration makes strides to improve the functionality of HealthCare.gov, the flagship website for the Affordable Care Act, Republican lawmakers continue to block federal funds that would help millions of poor Blacks get health insurance coverage.
A progress report on the improved performance of HealthCare.gov cited hundreds of software bugs that generate errors and hardware and infrastructure ill-equipped to handle any significant volume to site.
“For some weeks in the month of October, the site was down an estimated 60 percent of the time,” stated …

By State Representative, Leon D. Young
The Affordable Health Care Act, known derisively as Obamacare in most Republican circles, has now morphed into a game of political spin.
Republicans openly deride the president’s signature legislation as a blatant attempt to socialize delivery of healthcare in this country.
While Democrats, on the other hand, proudly assert that this legislation now affords medical coverage to millions of Americans who previously fell through the cracks by being uninsured.
What you need to know:
Health care coverage, under the Affordable Care Act, starts January 1, 2014, if you signed …