Wisconsin is a test state for a dramatic reform for health care. And the costs are a whopper:
And, wow, is “free” health care expensive. The plan would cost an estimated $15.2 billion, or $3 billion more than the state currently collects in all income, sales and corporate income taxes. It represents an average of $510 a month in higher taxes for every Wisconsin worker.
And increases entitlements:
The plan is also openly hostile to market incentives that contain costs. Private companies are making modest progress in sweating out health-care inflation by making patients more cost-conscious through increased copayments, health savings accounts, and incentives for wellness. The Wisconsin program moves in the opposite direction: It reduces out-of-pocket copayments, bars money-saving HSA plans, and increases the number of mandated medical services covered under the plan.
Good luck, Wisconsin will need it.
Related posts:
- Cost or access: Choose one or the other
- CBO cost analysis of the Baucus health reform plan
- Palliative care and cost savings
- Single payer DOA in Connecticut
- "A much greater driver of costs today are patient-demanded healthcare and CYA healthcare"
- Socialized medicine is inevitable
- Many uninsured choose to stay that way
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{ 5 comments }
I’m curious what the average total costs per insured member are per month in Wisconsin. It seems that if that number is on average greater than $510 then it is a net benefit regardless of what numbers you throw around and call “taxes”. On the other hand if the average total costs per insured member in Wisconsin is substantially lower than that it seems like a ripoff. Do we have access to those numbers?
Evan,
My recommendation is that you do the research for yourself.
Evan has a point.
If a family could quit paying for their current insurance and get family coverage for “only” $500 a month that would seem to be a bargain.
The other scenario is that you have to keep paying for what you already have -that’s going up 10-15% a year anyway- AND pay $500 a month per worker.
Somehow I’m guessing it’s the later.
Overall I’d say it will end the problem of an excess of jobs in Wisconsin since it will run the cost of being a business up considerably.
I would rather pay 1000 a month voluntarily as a customer than 500 a month involuntarily as a taxpayor/service recipient. The difference is freedom. It is worth dying for. It is worth killing for. It is certainly worth 500 a month extra.
AS a Wisconsin resident, my monthly bill for family insurance is about 300 dollars. So it’s a big increase not to mention the huge increase in state income taxes already among the highest in the country. This plan is dead in the water as written.
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