You’re paying more than our neighbors in Minnesota for health insurance, but a solution is so close at hand.
Years of grassroots organizing by many groups, including ours—Citizen Action of Wisconsin—have helped to build health care into the dominant issue in the 2018 elections. We didn’t do it alone. Every time insulin prices were raised, insurance refused to cover treatment, or deductibles rose higher, it reminded Wisconsinites that drastic action is needed. And now the election results have created a mandate for Governor-elect Tony Evers to pursue powerful fundamental reforms such as Medicaid expansion, a BadgerCare public option, long-term care reform and meaningful action on pharmaceutical prices. Which is none too soon.
An analysis done by Citizen Action and the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals shows that Gov. Scott Walker’s refusal to build on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is forcing many Wisconsinites to pay thousands more for health insurance. Wisconsinites on the individual market will face premiums and deductibles 50% higher on average than the standard Minnesotan. This means an average 40-year-old is paying $3,781 more per year for the same coverage. That’s unacceptable.
However, there is good news. The data in our report shows that a BadgerCare public option could not only address this injustice, it could immediately save people thousands of dollars per year and be available in all 72 counties. The idea: give Wisconsinites the option of purchasing BadgerCare on the ACA marketplace or for their small business at cost.
Wisconsinites who buy insurance on their own would pay premiums and deductibles on average 32.5% less for the BadgerCare public option. That’s $3,685 less on average for better coverage. Enacting a BadgerCare public option would have an even more dramatic impact for a family of four in Milwaukee, saving over $23,000 in premiums and deductibles over a private “Silver” health plan!
Governor-elect Evers has voiced his support for a BadgerCare public option, but thanks to our gerrymandered, hostile state legislature, the prospects for it are not immediate. But a new governor (and lieutenant governor) are not the only things our state’s residents told us. They also say that we need fundamental changes to the health system. Now. As exit-polling made clear, health care was the top issue (by a 26% margin over the second issue), and it showed that a large majority of Wisconsin voters (67%) want “major changes” in the health care system. This is well beyond simple repudiation of Gov. Walker.
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This broken health system manifests itself in different ways, but ones that should all be familiar. A major reason for cash-strapped school districts? High health prices. The reason people with disabilities are facing a shortage of personal care workers? Wages that aren’t keeping up with health costs, and BadgerCare can suddenly kick workers off of their health care coverage during months in which they log a few too many hours. Why are people skipping medications or cutting them in half to make them last longer? Because Big Pharma raises prices, and no one is standing up to them. Why are so many Wisconsinites scared to open a hospital bill? Because you could be suddenly declared “out-of-network” with no notice and little recourse.
All these things are fixable. There’s no good reason Wisconsin is one of the most expensive states in the nation for health services or why our coverage costs thousands more than our neighbor, Minnesota. Other states take action and the only thing stopping us from being a national leader in affordable health care is the moral, bipartisan, uncompromising commitment to tackling unacceptable health care costs that our fellow Wisconsinites tell us they want.
Kevin Kane has worked for many years in health insurance and for health policy reform, he currently directs Citizen Action of Wisconsin’s Organizing Co-op Incubator to help everyday citizens make change in fundamental ways where they live.
