Contact: Stephanie Marquis, Vice President of Communications
Communications@wha.org 608.575.9702 (C)
Federal Government Approves Wisconsin’s Reinsurance Proposal
Statement from Eric Borgerding, President and CEO of the Wisconsin Hospital Association:
“Rising premiums threaten access to affordable health insurance and erode the impressive gains Wisconsin has made over the past four years in reducing the number of uninsured. With solutions from Washington nowhere to be found, WHA has repeatedly called on the Governor and Legislature to strike Wisconsin’s own path and act to stabilize health insurance markets and sustain our gains in coverage. Governor Walker’s Health Care Stability Plan is a crucial step in protecting access to Wisconsin’s top ranked health care. WHA commends the Governor for initiating the stability plan and the many Republicans and Democrats in the Legislature who came together to support this sound, Wisconsin-focused solution.
“Even with today’s great news, our urban, rural and safety net hospitals continue experiencing massive losses from Wisconsin’s Medicaid program. Dubbed the ‘hidden health care tax,’ recouping these losses adds more than $1 billion annually to the cost of health care and health insurance in Wisconsin. At the same time, the State is projecting an over $100 million ‘surplus’ in Medicaid, revenue essentially generated by Wisconsin’s Medicaid hospital assessment. We call on the Governor and Legislature to again come together, to take another important step and preserve access to care by using the hospital-generated surplus to improve Medicaid hospital payments and begin curbing the hidden health care tax.
“With the next state budget just around the corner, WHA will continue its successful track record of working with the Governor and Legislature to ensure Wisconsin’s health care system continues to be a national model for quality, safety, and coverage.”