Health care repeal efforts are being pursued in both the Congress and in the courts. But are repeal proponents really standing up for consumers or are they actually standing up for the health insurance industry?
Talking points from each side often don’t tell the whole story, so WISPIRG turned to the facts in our new report, "The Cost of Repeal: Examining the Impact on Wisconsin Consumers and Small Businesses of Repealing the New Federal Health Care Law" (http://www.wispirg.org/home/reports/report-archives/health-care/health-care/the-cost-of-repeal-examining-the-impact-on-wisconsin-of-repealing-the-new-federal-health-care-law).
Using official research, data, and projections from independent sources, we found that repeal would have many costly consequences for consumers and small businesses in Wisconsin. Here are a few of the major takeaways from our findings:
In the absence of cost-saving reforms to make delivery of and payment for health care services more efficient, the cost of employer-sponsored coverage will go up. If you get your coverage through your employer, you and your employer may have to shoulder $3000 or more per year in per-employee health care costs by 2019.
And for those who don’t receive coverage through their employer, coverage rates for consumers on the individual market will see their rates increase by as much as 20 percent for the same coverage by 2019. What’s more, repeal would increase the tax burden for 476,900 Wisconsinites on the individual market who would otherwise benefit from new health insurance affordability tax credits.
If you own a small business, instead of having a tax credit that can cover some of the cost of a typical employee plan, you’ll be paying that much more in taxes. If efforts to repeal prevail more than 86,000 small businesses in Wisconsin will lose access to tax credits to afford coverage for their employees. And over the longer term, without the opportunity to pool your buying power with other small businesses, you will continue to be shut out of the better deals available to larger firms.
The U.S. House of Representatives is set to vote later this month on a bill to repeal the new law outright. The Governor has given the Attorney General the green light to sign onto a federal lawsuit urging the roll back of the law. And Washington’s intensely partisan debate over health care now
threatens to spill over to Madison, as the Governor and state legislators consider key implementation decisions.
Our state and federal leaders should look for solutions that hold down costs, not increase them.
If our elected leaders are willing to look for common ground, opportunities exist to make real progress for our state. Our report recommends a set of pro-active policy changes, on which supporters and opponents of last year’s health care law should be able to agree. These include:
1. Using the substantial authority the state has under current law to design a health insurance exchange that is adapted to meet the needs of our state’s markets, consumers, and businesses.
2. Taking additional steps to contain health care costs, like using information technology to ensure that doctors receive the latest research about which treatments are most effective – at the patient’s bedside.
3. Cracking down on balance-billing, a practice whereby hospitals or providers accept payment from your insurance plan, but then charge you additional amounts-above and beyond the usual copays and cost sharing.
In today’s economy, the last thing that Wisconsin consumers and businesses need is an increase in health care costs. Repealing a law that protects Wisconsin consumers and reduces health care costs is not right for Wisconsin. Wisconsin’s elected leaders should stand up for consumers, not the health insurance industry, and oppose efforts to repeal federal health care reform.
Shannon Nelson is the program associate at the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group, an advocate for the public interest of Wisconsin.
