 Healthy Wisconsin
In his State of the State address in January 2006, Governor Jim Doyle
announced his plan to lower health care costs and pass along the savings
to middle class families through the Healthy Wisconsin Initiative.
(View an overview of the proposed program.)
Healthy Wisconsin would significantly lower health care costs by
creating a statewide catastrophic reinsurance program in Wisconsin to
offset the high cost of health care for individuals who suffer serious
illness or injury. By taking on some of the risk, insurers will face
more predictable costs and they would feel less need to build high
reserves, and these savings could be passed on to consumers in lower
premiums. There are also administrative savings that would further
reduce costs for health insurance.
In July of 2006, Governor Doyle created the Healthy Wisconsin Council
charged with developing an action plan to achieve the following:
- Reduce the uninsured rate in Wisconsin by 50 percent.
- Reduce health insurance premiums for individuals and small businesses by
30 percent.
- Strengthen the private insurance market in Wisconsin.
- Encourage more employers to offer comprehensive, affordable
health coverage to their employees.
The Healthy Wisconsin Council will meet over the next several months
to explore the options available in establishing a reinsurance product,
examine models from states around the country, and identify available
funding sources that will help to ensure the affordability of the
Healthy Wisconsin product.
New York has a similar program that insures more than 100,000
workers. Launched in 2001, Healthy New York has reduced premiums by 50
percent for individuals and 30 percent for small businesses. Twenty
other states around the country operate some kind of reinsurance pool,
in addition to the model in New York.
Questions or comments
regarding the Healthy Wisconsin Initiative, contact:
Dan Herzig
Assistant to the Legislative and Policy Directors
Governor's Office
608-266-7424 (phone)
608-261-6804 (fax)
healthywisconsin@wisconsin.gov (e-mail)
Last Revised: March 21, 2007
|
