Community Corner

Gov. Walker Column: Preserving Family Care

"This type of patient-focused care saves taxpayers money as it keeps people out of higher cost facilities. This is truly a win-win," Scott Walker says in his weekly radio address.

The state has partnered with the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association to produce and distribute brief radio address from Gov. Scott Walker once a week.  Audio files and a written transcript of this radio address can be accessed online. To download an mp3 file you can visit Walker's website, right click the radio address link and click “save link as.”

Here is the transcript from this Thursday’s radio address, which is titled Preserving Family Care.

Hi, I'm Scott Walker.

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Last summer, I told the Journal Sentinel editorial board that we would have a plan to lift the caps on Family Care by the end of the year. In December, we introduced our plan to insure that the program is stable for years to come.

This week, I followed through on my plan and signed the new bill into law, which lifts the caps so that seniors needing long-term care - as well as people with developmental and physical disabilities - can now participate in Family Care. I signed it at an agency called Independence First.

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It was appropriate to sign the bill at this location because Independence First connects individuals with the resources to live independently at home by utilizing Family Care and other programs. This type of patient-focused care saves taxpayers money as it keeps people out of higher cost facilities. This is truly a win-win.

 I want to thank Rep. Dean Kaufert and Sen. Terry Moulton for their leadership in helping us on this new legislation that is good for the State of Wisconsin. We were happy to put together the plan to both lift the cap and open the process to expansion into every part of the state. And we are thankful to lawmakers for approving it.


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