Why are Republican legislators and Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle so reluctant to even discuss major changes to make health care more affordable and accessible when their constituents have cited it as one of their top priorities?
Just follow the money.
Wealthy special interests that oppose a universal health care system - like the one in the Senate Democrats' proposed 2007-09 state budget - have contributed nearly $2 of every $3 raised in the past four election cycles by Republicans who control the Assembly, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign analysis shows.
And Doyle, who does not support the Senate's health care plan, accepted 48 percent of his large individual and political action committee contributions from 1999 through 2006 from special interests that oppose the plan.
The Assembly GOP, which removed the Senate health care plan from its version of the budget, accepted $4.4 million from 1999 through 2006 from special interests that oppose universal health care or who are members of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state's largest business group, which opposes it. Those interests include manufacturers, business, hospitals, health maintenance organizations, insurance, agriculture, banking, transportation, telecommunications, restaurant and utility interests.
Assembly Republicans raised a total $6.9 million from all special interests during the period.
The $4.4 million those contributors gave the Assembly's 52 Republicans is 3.5 times more than the $1.3 million those special interests gave the Assembly's 47 Democrats during the past four two-year election cycles.
In addition, the Senate Democrats' health care plan also is opposed by two conservative ideological organizations - Americans for Prosperity, an anti-tax and government spending group, and Wisconsin Family Action, which supported the so-called marriage protection amendment to the state constitution on the November 2006 ballot. Wisconsin Family Action gave $81,411 to another group to pay for advertising and other activities to support the amendment. The group also engaged in secret issue ad spending in a hotly contested Assembly race where it sent a postcard to voters showing two men wearing tuxedoes and proclaiming the Democratic candidate opposed the amendment.
Doyle, who was asked in late June if he supported the Senate's comprehensive health care plan and responded "I live in the real world," has accepted $7.3 million of his total $15.2 million in large individual and PAC contributions from special interests that also oppose the plan. The budget proposal Doyle gave to the Legislature contained an expansion of the state's BadgerCare health program to cover more low-income residents.
Most special interests and public officials who oppose universal health care favor tax-deductible health savings accounts, measures to make health care costs more accessible so people can shop and compare and other so-called market-based changes to lower health care costs.
In many cases, these wealthy special interests, particularly the insurance industry, oppose major health care reform mainly because it will cost them money. In other cases, groups representing special interests, like WMC and the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation, would lose out because they sell insurance.
The state's largest teachers union and WMC's chief rival, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, favors the Senate Democrats' health plan even though WEAC provides health insurance to most of the state's school districts. The plan does not force unions to participate, so teachers can still negotiate with school districts for the health care plan they want at taxpayer expense.
WDC did not include doctors and other health professionals as special interests that oppose the Senate health care plan because the groups that represent them have not said where they stand on it. Health professionals led by doctors contributed nearly $1.8 million to Doyle and the Legislature from 1999-2006. For instance, the Wisconsin Medical Society, which is the doctors' lobby group, appears more concerned about doctors' pocketbooks than accessible, affordable health care. The group's big goal in the proposed budget is to prevent Doyle from removing $175 million from a state fund that gives doctors multi-million dollar malpractice coverage.
Mike McCabe is executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a nonpartisan watchdog group that tracks the money in state politics, fights government corruption and works for campaign finance reform and other pro-democracy reforms. The group's web site is www.wisdc.org.
5 Comments
I enjoy how Mike phrases things. "Wealthy special interest groups" oppose the plan. Is not WEAC a "wealthy special interest group"?
Overall democrats seem to be a head of republicans in the fund raising area this year. Are the democrats the "wealthy" group then?
If Mike wants to really just state the facts, leave the "wealthy" terminology our of the mix, and tell us who is for and who is against. We can figure it out from there.
Mike,can I see your W2 to determine your wealth status?
Is Wisconsin Democracy Campaign wealthy? Define your criteria for wealthy or stop using the wealthy as a codeword. Only conservatives should use codewords, right?
Art, I don't know about you, but I'm damned thankful that Mike McCabe and the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign is shining light on the corruption in our state senate and assembly. If they are going to kill health care reform it should be because it they believe it is not right for Wisconsin, not because they were paid hefty dollars from insurance and health care interests to do so. And I don't care whether it is WEAC money or WMC money, it is all corrupting. And Doyle is no better or worse than was Tommy Thompson.
If you had an employee giving away corporate assets and taking vendor money on the side, I expect you'd fire him on the spot. Why do you accept that of our elected officials?
The list of "special interest groups" that Mr. McCabe has identified would seem more indicative of the fact that the support for Healthy Wisconsin is limited, and limited because of the damage it would do under the guise of "solving" the health care cost issue.
It is also interesting that anyone or any group that is opposed to Healthy Wisconsin is "labelled" as something or another rather than engaged in a meaningful debate. The name calling simply causes thinking people to better understand the paucity of persuasive arguments one can make in favor of government-run healthcare.
Where, for example, is the response to the issue of people from anywhere moving to Wisconsin, living here for 12 months, and becoming covered by we other taxpayers whether or not they become taxpayers?
The support for Healthy Wisconsin may seem more limited because the supporters typically are those without deep pockets, and the opposition is typically those with a lot of cash they want to multiply (the insurance and pharmaceutical industries). They are hell-bent on killing any progress in this area, but the people of the state support it, and that's what really matters.
What McCabe rightfully points out is, like all corporate favors given by politicians, health care can now be added to the list. Healthy Wisconsin is good for Wisconsin, though not for the interests listed above.
In answer to Alan's question, the unemployed already have healthcare coverage in their own state under Medicaid, and there's little reason to pull up stakes for a year and move to Wisconsin for health care. But there is EVERY reason for corporations to move to Wisconsin if we are the only state that has eliminated the expensive middleman insurance bureaucracy. Businesses here will save money.
I would also argue that while the government collects the tax and pays the bills, health care to under total control of the doctors and hospitals, much like Medicare is today. And Medicare is probably the most efficient health care system in the US.
HSAs are a joke. They're the Bush Administration's lame attempt to introduce consumerism into the health care equation. It's just a way for employers to put the whole burden on their employees and wash their hands of it all. There is no transparency in health care, and consumers can't shop around for the best deals. So, when a middle-class family member gets sick and requires an overnight stay in the hospital, the family is socked with an HSA deductible of thousands of dollars. There's no way the family can afford to save enough for that. That's why bankruptcies are skyrocketing.
It's time for a new system. This one is busted and only getting worse. The players in the system won't reform it, because it's not in their best interests. That's why the players are pumping so much money into lobbying to keep the status quo. It's time to finally do the right thing. The fact that America is the only civilized nation without a national health plan is a disgrace. Help us reform this sick system or get out of our way.