Single Page | 
Multiple Pages
Home > BizTimes Daily > Archives > January 10, 2007
Richards defends health plan against critics
Published January 10, 2007 - BizTimes Daily
State Rep. Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee) is defending his Wisconsin Health Plan (WHP) project after a scathing report about the proposal by a conservative think tank.
The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute (WPRI), which receives funding from conservative organizations such as the Roe Foundation and the Lynde & Harry Bradley Foundation, issued a report Tuesday, stating the WHP underestimates the costs of health care and would result in employers paying more than 17 percent of their payroll expenses for a medical plan to be administered by the state.
"Overall, however, the WHP presents a number of problems. The most troubling of which involves the plan's costs. The WHP mandates a one-size-fits-all health insurance plan without brakes and state government at the steering wheel. The WHP would create a new state entitlement to health care for Wisconsin citizens. Entitlement programs rarely stand still. Interest groups of all sorts would fight relentlessly to expand WHP coverage for their members. Actual costs of the WHP would dramatically exceed those projected by the plan's authors. Cost overruns will generate pressure for tax increases, or benefit and provider reimbursement cuts, to fund the plan," the report stated.
The WPRI's study about the WHP was conducted by M. Scott Niederjohn, Ph.D., assistant professor of economics and the director of the Center for Economic Education at Lakeland College, and Mark Schug, Ph.D., professor of education and the director of the Center for Economic Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
In the past, Niederjohn and Schug have written WPRI reports critical of raising the minimum wage, community benefit requirements for development projects and Milwaukee's city residence requirement for teachers.
The WHP began as a bipartisan bill introduced by Richards and former state Rep. Curt Gielow (R-Mequon) last year. However, Gielow did not seek re-election in November.
Richards issued a rebuttal to the WPRI Tuesday afternoon, contending that the report ignored or misinterpreted several key aspects about the WHP.
"It's one thing to have an honest debate on the merits of a proposal, but partisan fudging of the facts is another," Richards said. "I'm ready to work with anyone who is interested in a sincere discussion on how to reduce health care costs and provide insurance for the half million people in our state without health care. Wisconsin's middle class families are ready for solutions, not the same tired rhetoric."
Richards said Niederjohn has released nine reports about various issues in the last two years and can hardly be considered an expert on the health care system.
Richards said Niederjohn and Schug did not contact the bill's authors for updated information on the proposal. A payroll assessment maligned in the report is not present in the current version of the bill, Richards said. Furthermore, the study misinterpreted the findings of the Legislative Fiscal Bureau's analysis of the plan and made no mention of a Northstar Economics study that was released last year, verifying the bill's assumptions, Richards said.
The report also neglected to mention that a current actuarial study, funded in part by the Wisconsin Hospital Association and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, is being conducted to gauge the true economic impact the plan will have on the state, Richards said.
The plan would not be a new government run program, because it would be administered by an independent board, Richards said. Enrollees would make their own decisions on care, and they would pick from a variety of already established health care providers or keep their current doctors, he said.
Employers would pay an assessed fee of 3 to 12 percent of their payroll costs into the program to provide health care coverage for their employees. The state would then seek bids from the private sector to provide the care for the state's residents.
The plan was created through consultations with various interests that include farm groups, labor groups, health care organizations, business groups and Wisconsin citizens.
To read the WPRI report, visit www.wpri.org/Reports/Volume%2020/Vol20no1.pdf.
To read more about the WHP, visit www.wisconsinhealthplan.org.
To read a previous SBT report about the program, visit www.biztimes.com/news/2006/10/12/proponents-arent-giving-up-on-wisconsin-health-plan.
