Health care problems are not new. A voter referendum in Madison of 1986 showed
that 73% would like a government health care plan to cover everybody. In
last October's ABC poll, 80% of those respondents want the same thing. In
another recent poll, health care costs edged out the economy as the Number
One concern of voters.
The Wisconsin Office of the Commissioner of Insurance tells us that there
are 700 companies selling health insurance in Wisconsin, each company with
different levels of coverage and multiple insurance plans. Today hospitals
and clinics require a phalanx of clerks to sort through the maze of forms,
billing addresses, co-pays, deductibles, etc.
Even if the patient has an insurance card, the first question is not about
care, but whether the needed care is covered. Has it been authorized? (Not
by a doctor, but by a clerk looking at billing codes on a computer screen!)
Is it so hard to understand that if we had one payer instead of 700 it would
save money? Isn't it clear that if Wisconsin residents were all in one huge
insurance pool that there would be "economies of scale" and true group
protection? If paperwork were greatly reduced, if advertising costs were
unnecessary, if shareholders' profits and the obscene salaries and bonuses
given to insurance executives were eliminated, we could spend all that existing
money on the uninsured and on preventive care.
There IS a plan that would activate the above and retrain many billing clerks
to be nurses, doctors, LPNS, physical and occupational therapists and social
workers. It was introduced into the Legislature this year as AB229 (SB90)
and it will be re- introduced next fall as the Wisconsin Universal Health
Plan (WUHP). Wayne Corey, CEO of Wisconsin Independent Businesses has stated,
"Only a dramatic overhaul of the current system will bring quality health
care coverage and stable costs. AB229 certainly proposes a dramatic overhaul
in the system".
Administrative costs for Social Security are 2%, and it is considered an
accounting miracle that every month millions of checks go out on time, to
the right person, and in the right amount! Administration for Medicare is
about 5%, for private health insurers it is 20 to 25% (GAO estimate). This
means that about twenty-five cents of every health care dollar now is NOT
spent on health care.
In 1987 the Coalition for Wisconsin Health was formed to promote health care
for all. Our bill (AB229) would provide health insurance coverage to every
Wisconsin resident regardless of age, race, creed, gender, sexual orientation,
geographic location, employment status, or any pre-existing condition. It
is a common-sense bill because able economists have shown that it would also
save our state money.
Under the WUHP you would have a "Medical Security Card". Government would
be involved only in the two things it does best, collecting the money and
distributing it (the way it does for Social Security). There would be only
one coverage plan, no dictating which procedures or medicines are allowed,
and no dictating which group or doctor you see, in the manner it is done
now. Treatment would be between you and your physician.
We are the only industrialized country in the world that treats health care
as a commodity to be bought and sold on the market. All those other governments
provide health care for all citizens. We pay twice as much per capita as
they pay, because we leave over 44 million people unprotected. They wait
too long to see a doctor and then access the most expensive care from emergency
rooms. Providers shift the cost of this care to well-insured patients and
insurance premiums go up. Taxpayers foot the bill for the sickest and most
disabled. You and I pay a high cost for having uninsured neighbors!
When choosing health care for the future of Wisconsin, knowledgeable consumers
will select the "Wisconsin Universal Health Plan". |
