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Outreach to Farm Families in Wisconsin on the impacts of the Affordable Care Act

Heidi Johnson

Summary

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) impacts farmers not only as consumers purchasing insurance for their own families but also as business owners offering health insurance options to their employees. Farm families and farm workers on average are less likely to have health insurance than the average American and generally have fewer insurance options, due to the high cost of coverage in individual policies. Provisions of the ACA may allow farm families and farm workers to acquire more holistic health insurance coverage at a lower rate by using the federal government’s health insurance marketplace and subsidies to lower their premiums. The act also provides tax credits to small businesses that provide insurance for their employees to lower the direct costs to farm businesses.

There were many efforts by various organizations in Wisconsin to educate people about the impacts of the ACA but none of them addressed the range of decisions that farmers would be facing as a result of the law. I put together a presentation from resources shared by UW-Madison’s Covering Kids and Families and Roberta Riportella and Barbara O’Neill’s national curriculum on ACA and Farm Families. I held two statewide webinars, one attended by 32 of my fellow agriculture agents from across Wisconsin and the second was attended by 95 farmers. I also held a live presentation that was attended by 18 farmers. Over the next couple of months, I will speak at 5 more regional meetings for farmers. I will be able to present the evaluation results of this educational outreach effort.

Details

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