Single Page | 
Multiple Pages
Home > BizTimes Daily > Archives > November 3, 2009
Study: SE Wisconsin's health care costs still higher than Midwest's average
Published November 3, 2009 - BizTimes Daily
Health care costs in southeastern Wisconsin continue to be 9 percent higher than the average costs throughout the Midwest, according to the Greater Milwaukee Business Foundation on Health Inc.'s third study of the costs, efficiency and quality of health care in the greater Milwaukee area
According to Ron Dix, the foundation's executive director, southeastern Wisconsin's 9-percent higher gap actually is an improvement from similar studies done in 2000 and 2003.
In 2000, the southeastern Wisconsin's health care costs were 55 percent higher than comparable Midwest states, and in 2003, southeastern Wisconsin's costs were 39 percent higher, Dix said.
"Although the results of this study are more positive than the previous two, the demographics of our employees, higher provider payment levels and richer benefit plan designs in southeast Wisconsin are the primary reasons our costs are higher than in other Midwest states," Dix said. "These findings clearly underline the complexity of the problem and that there are no single solutions."
Consulting firms Mercer and Milliman are the two main authors of the study, which is based on the analysis of 2006 and 2007 combined employer and employee health care premium costs of commercial health plan members under the age of 65.
The study includes Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, Ozaukee, Kenosha, Walworth and Washington counties, and represents more than $1.7 billion in health care costs from approximately 450,000 members and dependents for each year.
The figures include the costs for medical, prescription drug, mental health, vision, hearing, etc., but not dental, and correspond to comparable figures from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Kansas and Nebraska.
Factors listed in the study as contributors to the higher average local costs included the area's higher average age of participants, a slightly richer plan design than comparative plans in other states and provider payments are approximately 9 percent higher than the Midwest average.
"The foundation board and area employers are buoyed by the efforts of area providers in working with us to lower health care costs. We look forward to a time when we are among the areas with the lowest premium costs in the Midwest and the nation," Dix said.
The Foundation also announced its plans to conduct an additional study using data from 2009, and hopes to make those results available near the end of 2010 or early 2011.
To view a full copy of the foundation's latest report, visit http://www.gmbfh.org/news.php.
