Public Policy Forum Discusses Health Reform…

The Public Policy Forum held a panel discussion in Milwaukee on Wednesday, May 9th to discuss health reform in Wisconsin. Three proposals were discussed:

Wisconsin Health Care Partnership Plan which is the single payer plan developed by the Wisconsin AFL-CIO. It would be financed by a flat tax that this group estimates to be $340 per month per employee. Seems like that is a number we heard in the Massachusetts “Connector” plan debate…that has increased several times over the past months. It claims that it will reduce the 27% of every premium dollar going to administer health care insurance today. We seem to have a disagreement on that number, as well; since our information suggests the real cost is closer to 12% as borne out by federal studies.

Fortunately, this plan appears to be DOA from all indications.

The Wisconsin Health Plan which has been developed largely by David Riemer. It tends to use the state employee program model and would be funded by a tax on all employers. Last I heard, the proponents of this plan were talking about maybe a 12% tax, but only when pushed to give an estimate. Our information suggests that this tax would be much closer to 17% at the outset. The plans would be limited to those selected by “a commission” and each person would be required to select coverage from that list. This smacks of too much government control for my tastes. It also will drive businesses out of business and that certainly won’t be good for heath care or anything else.

BadgerCare Plus is the plan espoused by Governor Doyle. It would supposedly expand health insurance coverage to 98% of our state citizens. First, that still leaves 2% that are uninsured and that isn’t a real good solution since it would retain cost-shifting to the insured. We need to be sure everyone is covered. This plan piggybacks on federally-funded programs that are intended for children, would subsidize families with incomes beneath a certain point, etc. Our state already has more adults covered in the children’s health plan than it does children. The poverty level that determines subsidization is already set at twice the federal program’s original intent and there are those who would increase it again. There are as many as 200,000 people in our state that qualify for the various government programs who simply do not enroll. Why will this be different? And, what happens when federal funding begins to be restricted due to the increasing costs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security? Will providers’ reimbursements, already too low in this program, be reduced further?

Any successful reform plan must involve the effort of the private market and of government. Government’s role should be that of support, working with the private sector to get control of costs, and using its influence to assure transparency in those costs, transparency in the quality of care and transparency in the outcomes of the providers of that care. The consumer will take care of the rest.

Basic health care plans must be made available. Tax-advantaged programs must be featured. New tax-advantaged programs such as a Health Coverage Account should be made available to help low income people to be able to afford the basic health plans.

That sounds like a sensible solution.