Open letter to Outagamie HHS expresses concerns about impact of H.R. 1 legislation

Dear Chair McCabe and Members of the Health and Human Services Board:

I am writing to express my significant concerns about the local impact of federal legislation passed in July 2025 under the title of the federal bill H.R. 1. This bill will have dramatic implications for: 1) the residents of Outagamie County 2) The Outagamie County annual budget and 3) the employees of Outagamie County responsible for implementing the provisions of this bill. I am also concerned about the impact of these changes for residents that depend on the important services of Outagamie County for mental health and substance use disorders.

I served on the Outagamie County Board for 10 years and chaired the Health and Human Services Board for four years. I learned about the importance of county health and human services.  In addition, my wife Helene and I have volunteered for 15 years with NAMI Fox Valley (National Alliance on Mental Illness). Our primary work was teaching an education program called Family to Family to help work with their family members with a diagnosed mental illness. From our experience, the County is one of the most important providers of support services for people with a diagnosed mental illness. 

First and most importantly, H.R. 1 has and will have significant impact on families that utilize 1) SNAP benefits (40% are children under 18)  2) Badger Care insurance coverage  3) ACA (Obamacare) subsidies 4) services for people with mental health and substance use disorders and 5) people utilizing long-term care services (Brewster Village). The services provided by the county help the most vulnerable in our community.  A significant majority of people receiving these services already have jobs but struggle to make ends meet. 

The administrative rules under H.R. 1 will require many new requirements described in detail in the release of the administrative rules on June 1. I do not pretend to be able to figure out who will be affected and I think a respected attorney would have a hard time understanding the rules.  Estimates by the federal government and other groups indicate that millions in this country will lose benefits simply because they did not properly fill out the required information and paperwork.  

Second, if people lose SNAP benefits, Badger Care Insurance or ACA insurance (Obamacare) there will be implications for the 2027 budget and future years for Outagamie County. We know that many people that lose insurance coverage for mental health care will lose needed care or they will seek services from the county.  Losing mental health insurance coverage will also have implications for other related services such as criminal justice treatment services. I suggest that a thorough review of budget implications be developed to project the impact on the property tax levy because of increased reporting requirements or loss of insurance coverage. Communicating the budgetary implications of H.R. 1 to our Congressional representatives should also be considered.  

Third, the employees of Outagamie County will experience increased workload to assist people in meeting the reporting requirements and the increased time to make sure the t’s are crossed and the I’s dotted. The state of Wisconsin recognized the increased administrative costs by putting aside over $70 million dollars for the state and counties just to meet the new SNAP nutrition administrative requirements. The implications are increased training time for employees or adding employees to avoid an arbitrary federal “error” rate of less than 6%. And what are the budgetary requirements of the IT department to update and expand computer code to meet the new requirements? 

The loss of health insurance and nutrition benefits will impact the county budget. But the county can reduce the impact by giving the employees the tools to make sure that people meet any new employment rules and the reporting requirements. We suggest that the Health and Human Services Board review the impact of these changes with the County Board now rather than waiting for the full budget to be developed. 

Thank you for reviewing my concerns.  

Jerry Iverson