PRINT ADS

Universal health care was at the center of Kathleen Vinehout’s upset victory over incumbent state Sen. Ron Brown (R-Eau Claire) last November.

Nine months later, Vinehout is pushing another uphill fight for universal health care in the state Capitol.

Vinehout visited Tomah Thursday to tout the Healthy Wisconsin plan that majority Democrats included in their version of the state budget.

The plan faces numerous obstacles -- Republicans who control the state Assembly are vehemently opposed, and Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle has yet to offer his opinion.

Vinehout said it’s up to citizens to let their elected representatives know how they feel.

“There are people with high-paid lobbyists who benefit from denying care to people,” Vinehout said during a press conference at Tomah Memorial Hospital. “The plan rests with the people of Wisconsin. The whole reason I was elected was to get the job done.”

The plan radically overhauls health care in Wisconsin by abolishing private insurance companies. Instead, an entity Health Wisconsin Trust would be funded by a combination of taxes on employees and businesses. Employees would pay four percent of their Social Security wages, and employers would be taxed on 10.5 percent of Social Security wages. Sole proprietors would pay 10 percent of their income up to a cap.

The trust would fund a health care plan that offers the same benefits members of the state Legislature and governor receive now. The plan isn’t tied to employment, and there are no distinctions between individual and family plans. Vinehout said people would be covered “because (they) exist.”

“We disconnect having a job from having health insurance,” Vinehout said. “(People) get health insurance because they are residents of the state.”

The only people exempt from Healthy Wisconsin are those who either work for the federal government or receive their health care from the federal government under Medicare, Medicaid or the Veterans Administration.

Vinehout said the plan would save state and local governments $1.36 billion a year in health care premiums, and the bill requires local governments to refund at least half the savings to taxpayers.

“Having health care off the table makes (collective) bargaining a lot easier,” she said.

She also believes small business will warm to the plan.

“I think about the business people I met during the campaign who wanted to buy health insurance for their employees but couldn’t afford it,” she said. “This puts large and small employers on an even playing field.”

Although groups representing hospitals haven’t endorsed Healthy Wisconsin, Vinehout said hospital employees are very interested in the plan and appreciate that the plan has sparked a significant health care debate.

Healthy Wisconsin

Funding

Employees pay 4 percent of social security wages

Employers pay 10.5 perent of social security wages

Self-employed pay 10 percent up to a cap

Benefits

Everyone covered except those on Medicare, Medicaid, VA patients and federal employees.

Insured can get care at provider of his or her choice

$300 deductible for individual; $600 for families, no deductible for children

Co-pays of $20 per office visit; $5-$40 for prescritption drug

Preventive care paid at 100 percent

$60 penalty for inappropriate use of emergency room

Management

Wisconsin Health Care will administer the plan. The trust offers participants choice of plans and can’t exclude anyone for a pre-existing condition