Category: Door County News

The slower pace of the Door County winter can lull some folks into hibernation, but there are plenty of opportunities to get off the couch and out of the house when the weather turns.

We dug around dozens of sites and articles to try to find the best explanations of health care reform, and though there’s no simple, one-stop shop, these five sites are your best bets for digestible information.

$939 billion The cost to the federal government, over 10 years, of the health care reform bill 2 Percent of the federal budget represented by spending related to the health care reform bill 3 Percent of overall health care spending in the United States that spending related to the health care reform bill represents $124 billion The amount the health care reform bill is estimated to reduce the federal deficit over 10 years, due to taxes and fees enacted to pay for the bill 32 million Number of uninsured Americans who will become insured under the health care reform bill by 2014 $35 billion The cost of uncompensated care provided to people without health insurance in 2008 772,000 Number of Wisconsinites on BadgerCare Plus $1 billion The cost of BadgerCare Plus, 60 percent of which comes from federal sources 400,000 Number of BadgerCare recipients who work or are the spouse of someone working 9.

The Affordable Care Act will have major implications for many of Door County’s small business owners. Though most of the act’s strongest provisions affecting small businesses won’t take effect until 2014, businesses are prepping for the changes now.

In October, the Wellness Center of Door County hosted “Health Care 101: What Health Care Reform Means for Women and Their Children.” The presentation, featuring Sara Finger of the Wisconsin Alliance for Women and Rachel Currans-Sheehan of the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, focused on the aspects of health care reform that improve access and equality for women in the health care marketplace.

Those vehemently against health care reform, and those passionately in favor, usually share one large swath of common ground – neither knows much about what it actually means for them.

Once a month, Ellison Bay resident Don Heeringa drives to Sturgeon Bay to pick up the groceries, but they aren’t for him. Heeringa picks them up and delivers them to Sister Bay for distribution to the Northern Door families who have ordered them through the Self Help and Resource Exchange, better known as SHARE.

When Kerry Weir was an eighth grader at Southern Door Middle School in 1987, she decided to raise a puppy for the Leader Dogs for the Blind Program as a 4-H project.

Joe Parent unveiled a long-rumored plan to build a 59-unit assisted living facility on the southern end of Baileys Harbor Tuesday night at a joint meeting of the Baileys Harbor Town Board and Plan Commission.