Instead, Wisconsin removed tens of thousands of people from Medicaid who make more than the federal poverty level and allowed tens of thousands of others who make less and previously didn’t qualify to enroll.

By removing about 60,000 parents from Medicaid, or BadgerCare, the state lost about 15,500 children from the program even though they still qualified for it, likely because their parents neglected to renew them, the report said.

Wisconsin isn’t using FoodShare data to facilitate Medicaid enrollment or electronic data to determine eligibility during renewals as some states are, the report said.

Also, Wisconsin doesn’t let children remain on Medicaid for a year if their circumstances change, such as access to other insurance or their parents’ income going up. About half of states do.

Yunker said FoodShare data helps determine BadgerCare eligibility, and the state plans to start using other electronic data for eligibility next year. Efforts are made to prevent churning off and on benefits when there are temporary changes in income, she said.

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