National Health Care Expert Enthoven: ‘Healthy Wisconsin Is Exactly What This State Needs’
Families USA: ‘Insuring More People Will Strengthen Wisconsin’s Economy’
Madison – State Senator Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton) said the strong statewide support for the Senate’s “Healthy Wisconsin” plan to provide Wisconsin with the same coverage enjoyed by legislators has been mirrored on the national level, including supportive testimony given by renowned Stanford University economic and health policy expert Alain Enthoven and a report by Families USA showing a $1 billion economic boom and 13,000 new jobs created by the plan.
“People are running the numbers and finding we all win with ‘Healthy Wisconsin,’” said Erpenbach, Senate Health and Human Services Committee Chair. “Giving people in Wisconsin the same health care we have in the state legislature is an economic thunderbolt that saves billions of dollars in costs.”
According to Families USA, a Washington-based non-partisan health care advocacy organization and government watchdog, Wisconsin employees pay more than $400 million in direct additional premium costs to pay for those in Wisconsin who do not have coverage. This translates into a cost of $794 per family and $308 per single employee receiving job-based coverage.
“All Wisconsin residents and employees will be provided health care with the doctor and provider of their choice, regardless of preexisting conditions,” said Erpenbach. “Current employer and employee health care costs would fall by over $2 billion in the first year alone under ‘Healthy Wisconsin.’”
In addition to the Families USA findings, Professor Enthoven visited Wisconsin to provide testimony in support of “Healthy Wisconsin.” Enthoven, who holds degrees in economics from Stanford, Oxford and MIT, has long studied the economics and dynamics of the health care system and has written of the need for reform. Enthoven has consulted for Kaiser Permanente, and served as chair of Republican Governor Pete Wilson’s California Managed Health Care Improvement Task Force.
“This plan is exactly what this state needs to get its health care system on the track of equality and economy,” Enthoven told the committee. “Wisconsin has a great opportunity to lead this nation in the direction of more affordable, better quality care and service.”
The Senate Health Committee also heard testimony in favor of “Healthy Wisconsin” by Joe Leean, who served as Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services under then-Governor Tommy Thompson.
