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8/3/2006 Wisconsin Can Lead the Way on Health Care Reform By Judy Robson The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com. You know what’s wrong with our health care system? We spend too much money on paperwork and red tape. The billing bureaucracy – in hospitals, clinics, and insurance companies – takes up far too much of every dollar spent on health care. We waste too much money on a bureaucracy that contests whether every pill, every exam, every day in the hospital is justified. The bureaucracy of our health care system costs $400 million a year. That’s 31 percent of every health care dollar spent in America, compared to 17 percent in Canada. And it’s getting worse. The new Medicare prescription drug benefit increases our wasteful spending in two ways. First, the federal government is paying top-dollar for prescription drugs instead of using its enormous purchasing power to negotiate lower prices. Second, instead of a simple, efficient model like Wisconsin’s SeniorCare, the federal government is funneling large amounts of tax dollars through private insurance plans with high overhead. A 2004 Harvard Medical School study estimated that national health insurance could save $286 billion per year on paperwork, enough to cover all of the uninsured and provide full prescription drug coverage for everyone in the United States. So what’s stopping us? The political will for reform. Put Wisconsin Democrats in the “reform” camp. Senator Russ Feingold, Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin, and I (to name a few) believe that health care should be a right of citizenship, not a privilege for those lucky enough to have a good health plan at work, or wealthy enough to pay high premiums. Small businesses pay taxes and provide family-supporting jobs, yet they are forced to pay much higher health insurance rates than large companies and government. It’s just not right. Wisconsin Democrats believe that reform is achievable, as long as elected officials are willing to stand up to the powerful influence of the insurance companies and drug manufacturers who profit enormously from the existing system. Three reform bills were introduced in the Legislature last session: The Wisconsin Health Care Partnership Plan, the Wisconsin Health Plan, and the Wisconsin Health Security Act. Besides the “Wisconsin” and “Health” in their titles, these proposals have another thing in common: They provide health insurance to more people by reducing administrative overhead costs. Feingold and Baldwin both announced separate proposals that would empower states to adopt the kinds reform being proposed in Wisconsin. Their proposals would give states the funds and flexibility to develop innovative ways to expand health coverage for the state’s citizens. And lest you think these are far-out lefty proposals that are doomed from the start, note that conservative Republicans are co-sponsoring Baldwin’s bill. States can be wonderful laboratories for developing creative health care reform. But reform won’t come easily. There are many ardent opponents of reform, including most Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature. Reform opponents will point to the allegedly big, bad national health insurance programs in Canada and England. The truth is the health care system in those countries works better than our patchwork system. As two recent studies showed, Canada and England spend much less than the United States on health care, with better results. Those countries have lower rates of diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, high blood pressure, obesity, lung disease, and arthritis. All that at half the price of health care in the USA. Opponents of health care reform will dredge up horror stories from Canada and England. But any stories of long waits for non-emergency care pale in comparison to the health care horror stories right here at home. For too long the special interests have kept this a nation of health care haves and have-nots. I see the pendulum swinging toward reform, swinging toward health care for all. Wisconsin Democrats will be leading the way. Judy Robson (D-Beloit) is a registered nurse and Senate Democratic Leader. |
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