With health care at the top of the Obama administration’s agenda and a real opportunity for change by the end of this year, WISPIRG has added our voice to the call for reform, focusing on the need to rein in the high cost of care.

Plagued By High Costs

This summer, we researched and released a series of reports on the exploding cost of health care.

“The Small Business Dilemma” surveyed small business owners on health care. Seventy-eight percent of the owners we surveyed who do not offer coverage to their employees wish they could. Of that group, 80 percent cited health insurance’s high cost as the reason they didn’t offer coverage.

In another report, “The Three Trillion Dollar Question,” we demonstrated that by implementing reforms, including streamlining the billing process and offering a public option to compete with private insurance companies, it would be possible to cut the cost of health care in Wisconsin by $55 billion over a decade, and by $3 trillion nationwide. These savings would be realized by individuals, businesses and government programs.

Harry Shows What Hurts

On Sept. 4, we unveiled Healthcare Harry, our human-sized version of the game Operation, at a press conference to get our message across to the representatives from ­Wisconsin who may prove to be decisive votes on reform. Harry represents what’s wrong with health care: high premiums have emptied his wallet, he’s choking on red tape, and he’s getting the door slammed on him for his pre-existing heart condition.