Wisconsin AFL-CIO crafts statewide health plan in effort to curb rising premium costs

The labor organization presents its proposal at a meeting of a cost-cutting task force of the state medical society.

By Julie A. Jacob, AMNews staff. Nov. 11, 2002.

Steep increases in health insurance premiums have prompted the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO to propose a statewide health insurance plan, while the State Medical Society of Wisconsin is taking a fresh look at a plan it first proposed 10 years ago.

The state labor organization unveiled a plan in October under which all workers in the state and their dependents would be covered under a single health plan paid for by assessments levied on employers, based on the number of employees.

The state AFL-CIO hopes to find a sponsor to introduce legislation in January 2003 that would establish a state labor-management commission that would develop a comprehensive statewide health care plan for all Wisconsin public and private employees.

Although Wisconsin's rate of uninsured residents is one of the lowest in the country, the rising cost of health insurance is becoming a concern to both employees and employers, said David Newby, president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO.

"For the past two or three years, because of double-digit increases in the cost of health insurance, there has not been one major bargaining conflict or strike where the cost of health care was not a core issue," said Newby. "We were also beginning to get feedback from employers that they could not compete because they were spending so much on health insurance."

Details of the plan -- such as how much the assessments would be or whether the health plan would be provided by one health insurer or if patients could choose from among several insurers -- have not been hammered out yet. [...]