Wisconsin physicians share a desire for health care reform and agree about several key reform priorities, according to the authors of a new study published in the Wisconsin Medical Journal.
A team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Wisconsin Medical Society surveyed 2,500 randomly selected Wisconsin physicians to determine their opinions about several facets of the health care reform debate, including what role the government should play in an adapted system, whether health insurance should be tied to employment and how the system should handle high-risk patients and those unable to pay for health care services.
A majority (60 percent) of the physicians that returned a completed survey to the researchers indicated that they think the government should be responsible, to a large degree, for ensuring that all Wisconsin residents have access to high-quality and affordable health care.
In addition, 55 percent indicated that they support expansion of Medicaid and BadgerCare, while 24 percent indicated that they oppose that idea. The remaining 21 percent indicated that they were neutral or undecided on the issue.
While more than half (54 percent) indicated that they support incentives for health savings accounts (HSAs) with high-deductible insurance plans, 21 percent indicated that they oppose HSAs and another 25 percent were neutral or undecided.
A closer look at the data showed that many differences of opinion were closely linked to physicians’ status as primary care physicians (e.g., family physicians, internists, pediatricians) or specialists. Primary care physicians tended to support more government involvement in the health care system through measures such as universal coverage and creation of a single-payer system. Specialists were more likely to support HSAs with high-deductible insurance plans and oppose single-payer and universal-coverage proposals.
Primary care physicians, in general, had a more negative view of the current state of health care in the United States and Wisconsin than specialists.
At the same time, specialists and primary care physicians indicated that, by and large, they agree about what factors must be addressed in federal and state reform efforts. The factors include medical malpractice insurance costs and litigation, administrative costs in the health care system, unhealthy lifestyle choices among Wisconsin residents, the cost of health care services, pharmaceutical advertising and the waning supply of primary care physicians both nationally and statewide.
"These results indicate a need for more dialogue and education among physicians to identify common ground, forge shared goals and promote reforms to best benefit patients by achieving a cost-effective, high-quality and accessible health care system," the researchers said.
The Wisconsin Medical Journal is the official publication of the Wisconsin Medical Society. With nearly 12,500 members, the organization is the largest association of medical doctors in the state.

C.H. Coakley & Company, a full-service business operations management firm, has expanded its warehouse and distribution division by purchasing an additional facility on Green Tree Road in Milwaukee.
The acquisition adds another 172,000 square feet to the company's warehouse offerings and will result in the creation of 12 to 14 new jobs.
"Our goal is to meet the growing needs of our clients and further show our commitment to the City of Milwaukee." said Mike Coakley, partner at C.H. Coakley. "With the addition of our newest Green Tree Road warehouse and distribution facility, we now own and operate a total of 376,000 square feet of warehouse space within our three consecutive buildings along that block."
In total, the company owns 1.5 million square feet of warehouse space throughout southeastern Wisconsin.
In addition to commercial moving, C.H. Coakley provides an array of other services, including enterprise content management, secure data, archives, micrographics, printing, portable storage containers, logistics, warehousing and distribution.

Milwaukee County Supervisors Marina Dimitrijevic and Chris Larson will host a town hall meeting to discuss the future of the Hoan Bridge on Monday, Sept. 21.
The meeting, which will take place at 5:30 p.m. in the South Shore Park Pavilion, is the latest in a series of events intended to gather community input about the Wisconsin Department of Transportation's consideration of replacing the Hoan Bridge with a street-level lift bridge and roundabouts.
"Not only are the DOT's figures to maintain the bridge overstated, it just doesn't make sense to remove this important nonstop link between downtown and the south shore," Dimitrijevic said. "Many of my neighbors are outraged that the State is looking to tear this bridge down. These residents have voices that will be heard at this town hall meeting."
"A high-level bridge like the Hoan accommodates freighters of all sizes, making the Port of Milwaukee one of the most accessible ports on the Great Lakes," Larson said. "We should not underestimate how attractive this is for manufacturers to do business in Milwaukee County."
Dimitrijevic and Larson both represent the Bay View neighborhood and initiated the Coalition to Save the Hoan in conjunction with Supervisor Patricia Jursik and state Rep. Christine Sinicki (D-Milwaukee). The supervisors said the coalition has grown to include more than three-dozen elected officials and 2,000 residents.

The stock market continued its surge today as the U.S. Labor Department reported that the number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance dropped last week to its lowest level since July.
Unemployment applications fell by 26,000 to 550,000 in the week ended Sept. 5, lower than economists had forecast, from a revised 576,000 the week before, The total number of people collecting unemployment insurance declined to the lowest level since April.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which surpassed the 9,500 mark on Wednesday, clung to modest gains this morning.
The largest local gainers in the BizTimes Stock Index this morning were Brady Corp. (up $1.35 to $32.00) and Johnson Outdoors Inc. (up 58 cents to $9.24). The largest local decliners this morning were Strattec Security Corp. (down 83 cents to $14.28) and Snap-on Inc. (down 66 cents to $36.84).

The Fond du Lac County Board of Supervisors, at a special meeting Wednesday night, voted 16-2 in favor of instituting a county tax of one-half of 1 percent on taxable purchases. The revenue from the sales tax increase will be used to fund a $50 million low-interest loan to Mercury Marine. Read more at BizTimes Milwaukee's daily roundup of headlines from newspapers across the state at www.biztimes.com/#news.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be the keynote speaker for the Medical College of Wisconsin's Healthcare 2009 Dinner on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at the Pfister Hotel. Rice will share her experiences while providing a look at global affairs. To read more about the event and many other business networking opportunities, as well as people on the move, read this week's edition of the BizTimes Bubbler.

The effort to develop an effective regional transit system in southeastern Wisconsin is gathering steam, according to William Johnson, author of today's Milwaukee Biz Blog.