Senate Dems to roll out 'Healthy Wisconsin' Monday
Senate Dems will roll out a universal health care plan tomorrow that would put all Wisconsin residents into a single purchasing pool under the guidance of a 16-member board, a system they say would dramatically cut costs.
The plan, dubbed "Healthy Wisconsin," calls for public and private employees to contribute 4 percent of their Social Security wages while employers would put in 10.5 percent of Social Security wages. Dems estimate that averages out to a monthly health care cost of $140 per employee and $370 per employer. Sole proprietors or those with other sources of income would pay 10 percent of their earnings as calculated for Social Security.
The total in new annual business and employee taxes would be $15.2 billion once the plan kicked in Jan. 1, 2009, according to Senate Dems who drafted the plan. It would cover all Wisconsin residents under 65 except those already on medical assistance programs.
Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, has already dismissed the proposal as the biggest tax increase in state history. And Gov. Jim Doyle has signaled he likes his own plan, not this one from fellow Democrats.
Mike Prentiss, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, called the plan a "disaster for Wisconsin."
"It will throw health care coverage and medical care for everyone in Wisconsin into chaos," he said.
Josh Wescott, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Judy Robson, D-Beloit, said private and public sector employees and their employers now pay $17.5 billion on health insurance premiums. Senate Dems estimate their plan would come in $1.8 billion less while also covering an estimated 472,000 state residents who don't have health insurance.
"If the cost of health care is suddenly now considered a tax, every industry in the state that offers health insurance is going to get a massive tax cut," Wescott said.
*See a summary of the plan: http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/large/070624HWsummary.pdf
*See the Dems' "Case for Healthy Wisconsin":
http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/large/070624HWfacts.pdf
*Listen to a May interview with Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, as he worked on the plan:
http://www.wispolitics.com/1006/070503Erpenbach.mp3
The Senate Committee on Health and Human Services will have an informational hearing on the plan at 11 a.m. tomorrow morning. The plan is expected to be inserted into the Senate version of the budget, which the chamber is to take up Tuesday.
Other highlights of the plan include:
-No cost sharing for preventative care and no co-pays for minors. Adults would pay $20 for office or appropriate emergency room visits. Unnecessary emergency room visits would include a $60 fee.
-Deductibles would be $300 per individual and $600 per family with no deductible for kids.
-The plan would be run by a 16-person board that would include members from small and big business, agriculture, labor and others. The board would have bargaining power to negotiate prices and run the plan. It also would have an advisory panel with doctors, hospitals and others from the medical community.
Critics of similar proposals have questioned if the payroll tax to pay for the plan will be able to keep up with the spiraling costs of health care.
Wescott said the plan includes caps on the assessment of 4 percent for the employee and up to 12 percent for the employer. He said the projections on the plan show it can be done at a 10.5 percent assessment on employers. Should the board want to exceed the 12 percent cap, it would have to go back to the Legislature for permission.
Prentiss scoffed at that notion, saying backers would have no problem going back to public for more after hitting them up for $15 billion. He said costs under the plan would undoubtedly go up faster than income, requiring another tax increase.
Wescott also said private health insurance companies would have some administrative responsibilities under the plan and would be able to offer supplemental coverage for things such as vision and dental.
Labels: Erpenbach, Fitzgerald, Health Care Reform, Huebsch, Robson
