Wisconsin gets pitch for flexibility in health benefits

Physicians applaud the effort to address costs, but concerns remain about employers not including state-mandated provisions.

By Mike Norbut, AMNews staff. Feb. 2, 2004.

Groups representing Wisconsin small businesses, hospitals, and health plans floated a proposal last month aimed at reforming the state's health care system, including lowering costs and granting employers more flexibility in providing benefits.

The plan, called "Wisconsin's Healthier Choices for Affordable Health Care," suggests, among other things, that the state allow employers to design their own coverage instead of being forced to include a long list of state-mandated provisions.

The proposal could affect physicians as small employers, even though Wisconsin has a greater proportion of physicians in large groups than many states. Critics of the state's current system say the mandates force small employers to either pay for an extensive plan or decide they can't afford any coverage.

"We're not proposing the elimination of state mandates," said Phil Dougherty, deputy director of the Wisconsin Assn. of Health Plans. "We want the flexibility if buyers want a plan without some mandates. We want the ability to serve somewhere in the middle as well."

While they applauded the effort to address rising health care costs, physicians weren't completely supportive of the proposal. The Wisconsin Medical Society had concerns about important mandated provisions being left out of some plans.