IN MY OPINION: New reports confirm Wisconsin health care among costliest in U.S.

Where is the Wisconsin Leadership on health costs?

With health cost unaffordability now a top issue with the voters and businesses across the state, and the primary election less than four months away, why haven’t the eight candidates for governor addressed cost prices in a serious way?

The seven Democrats in the race are all seeking more access to care, but they have been silent on the all-important cost issue.

Past weeks have brought to the fore two more articles on Wisconsin’s extraordinarily high health costs. The Health Care Cost Institute published a study showing Wisconsin with the third highest overall health costs in the country. Three of the 10 highest cost communities in the United States were in Janesville, Racine, and Green Bay.

The Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy released a report on “Rising Health Costs” in Wisconsin that noted health costs are rising much faster than wages.

  Those reports follow an earlier Rand Report that found Wisconsin hospital costs were fourth highest in the nation and highest in the Midwest.

Only Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state biggest business lobby, made a public comment, calling Wisconsin’s health costs “egregious.”

With help from Tom Hefty, retired CEO of Blue-Cross Wisconsin, here’s a run-down of the cost issues:

Wisconsin hospitals pay roughly the same for buildings and equipment as hospitals in other states.

Frequently blamed for high costs are the malpractice insurance premiums. Wisconsin malpractice costs are among the lowest in the county.

Another excuse has been the rising cost of salaries. But statistics show Wisconsin nursing pay significantly below the national average. The Lown Institute publishes a social responsibility index for hospitals and hospital systems. Wisconsin hospitals generally receive an “A” grade for outcomes; an average “B” grade for social responsibility; but a “D” grade for pay equity that compares starting pay in the hospital to executive compensation.

At the heart of the cost disparity, Wisconsin has experienced a frenzy of hospital and health system mergers during the tenures of Evers and Kaul. A staff report to the Evers group insurance board, which administers health benefits for state and local government employees, noted that the mergers and increasing concentration in the hospital markets may explain the price increases that always follow consolidations. Other national studies point to the same conclusion. They are motivated by gaining pricing power.

Eight out of nine Wisconsin hospital system mergers involved hospitals with their own health insurance subsidiaries. The attorney general has the power to review those mergers; unlike other states, he has not done so.

Note that hospital ownership of health insurance companies is incestuous. They own their “customers.”

Wisconsin was the first state in the union with public utility regulation of power costs. Wisconsin for 50 years has regulated health insurance holding companies. Why not regulate health care conglomerates?

Wisconsin is in the top five for health care costs. It’s a hidden tax on business and families. Neither party is taking accountability for that negative impact.

Which candidates will step forward to engage government in the soaring cost/prices in the non-competitive health care world?