TESTIMONY ON "HEALTHY WISCONSIN"

 by David Newby, President

Wisconsin State AFL-CIO

 

 

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today in support of “Healthy Wisconsin”.  As you know, we have been working intensely on the issue of guaranteeing quality, comprehensive, affordable health care to everyone in Wisconsin for well over six years (to say nothing of other efforts that go back almost twenty years).  So we are proud to have been part of the process that got us to this proposal today.

The first thing that has to be absolutely clear is that “Healthy Wisconsin” is not a $15 B tax increase, as some have already charged.

 

The estimate is that if “Healthy Wisconsin” were in effect this year, our total health care expenditures for those covered by the Plan would be $751 M less than what we will spend this year if no changes are made.  Furthermore, businesses that currently provide at least some health insurance to their employees would save $686 M—and yet everyone in Wisconsin would have the health care they need: guaranteed!

So those who charge that “Healthy Wisconsin” is a massive, $15 B tax increase are simply deceiving the people of Wisconsin.

 

When everyone—individual and employer alike—pays their fair share, it is possible to provide the best health care for everyone in Wisconsin:  at a total cost less than we are paying today!

But we also need to control costs in coming years:  not by taking it out of the hides of those who provide health care, but by being more efficient and effective in the way we deliver care.  “Healthy Wisconsin” incorporates mechanisms to ensure that increases in health costs are no greater than the National Rate of Medical Inflation (which they have been a number of years in the past).

 

We also think that by dramatically reducing administrative costs and building quality and best-practice standards into the very structure of the health care system in Wisconsin that we can keep costs to an even lesser rate of inflation.

 

There are two other points that I would like to stress, ones that are often overlooked:

 

First, guaranteeing health care to all in Wisconsin gives us all greater freedom. 

 

  • It would eliminate personal bankruptcies due to unpaid medical costs (which are responsible for almost 50% of all individual or family bankruptcies today).

 

  • It would allow people to change jobs while now they may well have to stay in a job they hate just so they have health insurance for themselves and their family.

 

  • It would allow people to start new businesses, without having to take the risk of going without health insurance and knowing that they could recruit top-notch employees who would also be guaranteed excellent health care.

 

  • It would allow people to retire early and still get the health care they need, while continuing to pay their fair share toward the cost of their care.  It would also allow someone to retire when they become eligible for Medicare, rather than having to work more years if they have a younger spouse who would have no access to health care once they would no longer be covered by an employer’s policy.

 

Second—and terribly important for the long-term economic health of our state:  Enacting “Healthy Wisconsin” would give us the most important and powerful economic development tool our state has ever had.  Firms that currently pay family-supporting wages and pay good benefits will have their costs for health care reduced dramatically, making them more competitive and allowing them to hire more workers and expand their business.  Firms outside the state that also pay good wages and benefits would be encouraged to move to or expand in  Wisconsin because they would pay less for health insurance—and they wouldn’t have to have a whole department set up just to manage and negotiate health insurance plans.  All any firm in Wisconsin would have to do would be to write a check for a determined percent of wages each month—just like they do for Social Security or Medicare.

 

All the incentives line up in favor of economic growth and health care security—while under our current system the opposite is true.

 

Word about “Healthy Wisconsin” is already beginning to spread across the country.  I think you will see in the next few weeks that Wisconsin will be recognized as considering the simplest, most cost-effective, comprehensive, quality-driven and progressive health care reform package in America.  Once more Wisconsin can be recognized as it was in the 20th century under the leadership of the Republican Progressives for leading the way on sensible legislation that sets the standard for the country.  We did it for Workers Compensation, we did it for Unemployment Insurance, as well as many lesser measures. 

 

Let’s now do it for health care.

 

 

Contact:  David Newby (414-581-0942)