As we enter open enrollment, some will be surprised by the sticker prices of health insurance. You may even be someone who received a letter saying your insurance was increasing by double digits or leaving the marketplace completely. But it is important to realize that this is not the experience everywhere, and we could have prevented this.
For years now, Citizen Action of Wisconsin has done research contrasting the health insurance prices between our state and our neighbor to the west, Minnesota—a state that has done a lot more to rein in the price of healthcare and which has seen rates far lower than we have. How much of a difference are we talking about? In a new analysis of the health insurance rates consumers are seeing right now on state health insurance marketplaces, the average Wisconsinite will pay 45% more than the average Minnesotan for the same plan, and on top of that, we here in the Badger State can expect higher out-of-pocket costs, too.
The differences could not be starker. While Wisconsin health insurance prices are increasing by 36% since last year, four-out-of-five insurance companies in Minnesota are lowering their premiums. The divergence is so large that a 40-year-old consumer in Milwaukee can expect to pay $2,899 more in premiums—and see a $2,500 higher deductible—than their counterpart in Minneapolis-St. Paul! Nor is Milwaukee the worst-hit city in Wisconsin. Green Bay and La Crosse both will see premiums more than twice as high as someone in the Twin Cities.
Why is it so much worse in Wisconsin when President Donald Trump is sabotaging healthcare across the country? It turns out the answer comes down to Gov. Scott Walker’s administration and the Wisconsin State Legislature. Our state has left insurers effectively alone to decide what to offer and at what price. Minnesota, on the other hand, has made a bipartisan push to prove that the state has a clear and necessary duty in protecting consumers from skyrocketing health costs.
What did Minnesota do that we should emulate, and how can we go even beyond them? Minnesota took it on itself to play a hands-on role in designing the health market. They created their own enrollment website, required insurers to seek prior approval before raising rates drastically, outlawed the sale of “lemon” transitional health plans that aren’t compliant with the Affordable Care Act and used available federal funds to ensure that MinnesotaCare (their version of BadgerCare) covers as many people as possible.
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None of which Wisconsin did. But they’re even going beyond that—creating what’s known as a “reinsurance” plan to protect against excessive uncertainty and even pushing for a public option at the state level to compete with private insurers. Wisconsin can, and should, do all of this.
Can Wisconsin Do Better?
We can design a fair insurance market that protects consumers with preexisting conditions, while not letting insurers game the system. We could have a BadgerCare public option, so consumers are not at the mercy of insurance company decisions. Right now, there’s a bill in the state legislature—introduced by State Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) and State Rep. Eric Genrich (D-Green Bay)—to open up BadgerCare as a public option to individuals and small business owners. We need this now more than ever as Trump’s sabotage raises insurance prices.
Wisconsin can and must do more. We can guarantee quality affordable healthcare for all. We can take on corporate medicine that extracts profit from people at their most vulnerable. It’s indefensible that our next-door neighbor can provide healthcare at a fraction of what we pay, and if we don’t catch up, we’ll fall further behind.
Kevin Kane is organizing director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin and head researcher comparing healthcare costs between Wisconsin and Minnesota. He can be reached at kevin.kane@citizenactionwi.org.
