Keep Government Out of the Examining Room

By George Lightbourn

In Wisconsin we are worried about the condition of health care.  The steep, upward climb of insurance premiums has us believing economists who warn that health insurance is robbing us of the good life. 

Health insurance has become so expensive that thousands of our neighbors are forced to take the enormous gamble of doing without.

It was into these troubled waters that the Wisconsin State Senate waded.  In a surprise move, Senator Robson from Beloit and her Democratic colleagues dropped a $15 billion health care plan into the state budget.  Rather than abiding by the custom of allowing the public to absorb and respond to such a major initiative, Senator Robson and company short-circuited the process.  In two days the idea went from being a closely-held secret to speedy passage on the Senate floor.

The plan’s sponsors tout this “Healthy Wisconsin” plan as guaranteeing insurance for everybody at a lower price than we are now paying.  For good measure, they even held out the prospect of a tax cut.  (In the halls of the Capitol when Senators want to divert attention, they talk about a tax cut.)

In spite of these lofty promises, this plan should be rejected.  I’ll leave it to others to talk about it being the largest tax increase in the history of Wisconsin – the plan is funded with a tax on payroll that is guaranteed to grow every year – or that it will cause thousands of jobs to leave Wisconsin, or that for some reason unions are allowed to opt out of this health care system that is intended for everyone. 

My problem is that the plan passed by the State Senate turns my health care over to my government.  Apparently for the State Senate it isn’t enough to tell me what I will have to pay and what plans I can choose.  But they step way over the line when they also want to tell my doctor how he should practice medicine.

You won’t hear any of the advocates talk about exactly how “Healthy Wisconsin” will control health care costs, but right there in the language passed by the Senate they spell it out.  In a section of the law titled, “Containment of Health Care Cost,” is a requirement that the Secretary of Administration “… establish, by rule, a program to contain health care costs in this state during any year in which the board determines that health care costs increase at a rate exceeding the national average of medical inflation …”

The Secretary of Administration?  That’s right, the Secretary of Administration is given the job of holding down health costs; a job sandwiched in the law between setting the rental rates for state buildings and overseeing a computerized personnel system. 

To see exactly how this will work we need look no further than the way the government controls costs under Medicare.  A recent news article revealed that the federal government thought that too many physicians were ordering MRI scans.  So they cut back on the number of allowable scans.  Just like that, the government changed the way physicians practice medicine. 

In Wisconsin it will be the Secretary of Administration that will determine who can have an MRI scan, which prescription drugs are approved, how much pain I need to endure before my knee is replaced, etc. 

This is the dirty little secret that advocates for universal health care never mention.  They contain costs by rationing care.  It is this rationing that chaffs people throughout Canada and Europe.  They envy the speed with which Americans can have our medical needs met.

Many of the supporters of this “Healthy Wisconsin” plan have advocated keeping government out of the bedroom.  For me, I’d like to keep government out of the examining room.