Wisconsin: Round 1 - State Level Field Network Study of the Implementation of the Affordable Care Act

This report is part of a series of 21 state and regional studies examining the rollout of the ACA. The national network -- with 36 states and 61 researchers -- is led by the Rockefeller Institute of Government, the public policy research arm of the State University of New York, the Brookings Institution, and the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania.The drive to enroll consumers in private health insurance coverage has fostered new alignment among consumer advocates, insurance agents and brokers, community-based organizations, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, and the health care and insurance sectors. The unique policy position on Medicaid expansion in Wisconsin brings collaboration between those who support the ACA and those who may not support the ACA, but recognize that the governor's entitlement reform plan depends on effective outreach and enrollment into the federally facilitated marketplace. The limited federal funding available for outreach and enrollment has also required public/private partnerships and unlikely alliances. Wisconsin's decision against full Medicaid expansion and instead to cover all adults up to 100 percent of the FPL, but remove adults above that level, provides a boost for the commercial insurance sector. Nearly 80,000 adults will transfer from Medicaid to marketplace coverage and be sent to purchase subsidized coverage on the exchange

The Lady Without A Dog

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From Ashes to Architecture: Memorialization at Buchenwald Concentration Camp

Buchenwald concentration camp, located in Weimar, Germany, was a place of suffering, cruelty and death during World War II and during the first five years of the cold war. As many were tortured and perished there, it has since become a place of remembrance. Being one of the few concentration camps to not be destroyed by the Nazis before they could be liberated, since its final closure in 1950 numerous memorials have been erected to commemorate the events that took place and the people who fell victim to those events. Following several theorists four of the memorials at Buchenwald are examined using elements of architecture, space versus place and truthfulness. The four memorials are the main camp’s steel plate which was created using the ashes of Buchenwald victims. Second is the clock tower which is permanently set to 3:15, the moment the prisoners liberated themselves, third is the little camp court yard which was reclaimed from the wilderness in 1990. Lastly is the steel pipe memorial in the forest which memorializes those who were killed there during Buchenwald’s time as a Soviet special camp from 1945-1950. Using theorists such as, Carole Blair, Greg Dickinson, Brian Ott, James Young and Thomas Gieryn allows me to build an argument in favor of the memorials success compared to other Holocaust memorials which have failed to properly commemorate and negotiate the public memory of events. This argument adds depth not only to the study of collective memory and its ability to act rhetorically but also to the overall body of Holocaust rhetoric

The conspiracy of silence: Family communication effects on interpersonal functioning and differentiation of self in children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors

Findings have been inconsistent regarding the existence of intergenerational transmission of trauma in offspring of Holocaust survivors (OHS) and grandchildren of Holocaust Survivors (GHS). Some studies have indeed found that OHS have more psychosocial problems than their counterparts with no family members in the Holocaust (e.g., Scharf, 2007), while others have not found any differences (e.g., Sagi-Schwartz et al., 2003). One reason for these mixed findings is the quantity and quality of communication on the part of the Holocaust survivor within their families about their trauma (e.g., Danieli et al., 2017). Another reason for the inconsistent findings is that much of the research on OHS has focused on psychopathology instead of focusing on the vulnerabilities in the areas of interpersonal difficulties and problems with separation and individuation that have been more frequently observed by clinicians working with OHS patients (e.g., Solkoff, 1992). To address these limitations with past research, the present study predicted that a lack of explicit communication between Holocaust survivor parents and their children would detrimentally impact OHS in the areas of interpersonal functioning and ability to separate from others and regulate their emotions. The study also examined the relationship between these variables in a subset of the OHS participants and their GHS children. Self-report measures were completed and analyzed from 412 OHS and 71 of their GHS children. There were several important findings, including that OHS-rated parental numbness predicted both greater OHS interpersonal problems and lower OHS differentiation of self. Additionally, OHS differentiation of self mediated the relationship between OHS-rated parental numbness and OHS interpersonal problems. Interestingly, none of these effects carried over to the GHS generation

Revising the Myth of Normal: Creating a Sustainable Secondary Academic Curriculum Predicated on Learning Diversity

In recent years, a paradigm of neurodiversity has emerged in secondary schooling that functions as a framework to meet the needs of all types of learners. Accordingly, as our understanding of students who learn differently shifts, we must consider and evaluate pedagogical overhauls that aim to meet the needs of all learners. This synthesis details my experience as a young, fairly inexperienced administrator who has entered into a newworkplace environment and devised a curricular framework with the intention of supporting students with learning differences to become constructive and reflective agents of their own learning. In this narrative, the reader will learn and understand the process that I undertook as I worked to form an academic program that best enabled seventy-two adolescent students to find success in a post-secondary setting. The model that I describe within this synthesis combines traditional academic classes in core competencies, classes focused on social-emotional wellness and social pragmatics, a series of workshops focused on instilling “21st-Century” skills, and two types of assessments: narrative evaluations and grids that monitor metacognition and critical thinking. Ultimately, I argue that this reproducible model embraces cognitive diversity through inclusion, and seeks to instill the skills necessary to supporting perceived cognitive “weaknesses” as it actively works to optimize student strengths by focusing on empathy and innovation

Nominal Wage Rigidities in Mexico: Evidence from Social Security Records

This paper analyses the existence and extent of downward nominal wage rigidities in the Mexican labor market using data from the administrative records of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS). This longitudinal, firm-level dataset allows us to track workers employed with the same firm, observe their wage profiles and calculate the nominal-wage changes they experience over time. Based on the estimated density functions of nominal wage changes and other moments of the distribution, we are able to calculate several standard tests of nominal wage rigidity that have been proposed in the literature. Furthermore, we extend these tests to take into account the presence of minimum wage laws that may affect the distribution of nominal wage changes. The densities and tests calculated using these date are similar to those obtained using administrative data from other countries, and constitute a significant improvement over the measures of nominal wage rigidities obtained from household survey data. We find considerably more wage rigidity than previous estimates obtained for Mexico using data from the National Urban Employment Survey suggest. Furthermore, we find evidence that the extent of nominal wage rigidities has been falling over time. We also document the importance of minimum wages in the Mexican labor market, as evidenced by the large fraction of minimum wage earners and the widespread indexation of wage changes to the minimum wage increases.

Wage Rigidities in Mexico: Evidence from the Administrative Records of the Mexican Social Security Institute (Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social).

We analyze the existence and magnitude of downward nominal wage rigidities in the Mexican labor market. We use data from the administration records of the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS). These records form a firm level panel data, which allows to follow workers employed in the same firm, and the nominal wage changes they experience through time. We estimate the nominal wage changes density functions, do some standard tests proposed in the literature of the presence of nominal wage rigidities, and extend some of these tests to take into account the presence of minimum wages, and its effect on wage change distribution.downward nominal wage rigidity, minimum wage, social security

Older people’s experiences of mobility and mood in an urban environment : A mixed methods approach using electroencephalography (EEG) and interviews

There are concerns about mental wellbeing in later life in older people as the global population becomes older and more urbanised. Mobility in the built environment has a role to play in improving quality of life and wellbeing, as it facilitates independence and social interaction. Recent studies using neuroimaging methods in environmental psychology research have shown that different types of urban environments may be associated with distinctive patterns of brain activity, suggesting that we interact differently with varying environments. This paper reports on research that explores older people’s responses to urban places and their mobility in and around the built environment. The project aim was to understand how older people experience different urban environments using a mixed methods approach including electroencephalography (EEG), self-reported measures, and interview results. We found that older participants experience changing levels of “excitement”, “engagement” and “frustration” (as interpreted by proprietary EEG software) whilst walking between a busy built urban environment and an urban green space environment. These changes were further reflected in the qualitative themes that emerged from transcribed interviews undertaken one week post-walk. There has been no research to date that has directly assessed neural responses to an urban environment combined with qualitative interview analysis. A synergy of methods offers a deeper understanding of the changing moods of older people across time whilst walking in city settings

Are Exotic Herbivores Better Competitors? A Meta-Analysis

Competition plays an important role in structuring the community dynamics of phytophagous insects. As the number and impact of biological invasions increase, it has become increasingly important to determine whether competitive differences exist between native and exotic insects. We conducted a meta-analysis to test the hypothesis that native/exotic status affects the outcome of herbivore competition. Specifically, we used data from 160 published studies to assess plant-mediated competition in phytophagous insects. For each pair of competing herbivores, we determined the native range and coevolutionary history of each herbivore and host plant. Plant-mediated competition occurred frequently, but neither native nor exotic insects were consistently better competitors. Spatial separation reduced competition in native insects but showed little effect on exotics. Temporal separation negatively impacted native insects but did not affect competition in exotics. Insects that coevolved with their host plant were more affected by interspecific competition than herbivores that lacked a coevolutionary history. Insects that have not coevolved with their host plant may be at a competitive advantage if they overcome plant defenses. As native/exotic status does not consistently predict outcomes of competitive interactions, plant–insect coevolutionary history should be considered in studies of competition