Madison, WI
— Without action from Congress, premiums
and deductibles for residents of Wisconsin
with employer provided insurance will nearly double by 2016, according to a new
report released today by the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group (WISPIRG).
“Unchecked, health care premiums will double by 2016,” said Bruce
Speight, WISPIRG Advocate. “The health
care reforms in President Obama’s economic recovery plan are indispensable first
steps to addressing this crisis.”
WISPIRG attributes these high costs to wasteful health
spending and the insurance and pharmaceutical industries that profit from it. The report concludes that one out of three dollars spent on health care fuels
profits for special interests without delivering better health care for
patients.
The report spotlights two important categories of wasteful
health spending in Wisconsin:
- ♦$4.99 billion each year was spent on inappropriate,
ineffective and uncoordinated care which can actually cause harm to patients.
- ♦An estimated $841,779,000 in red tape is created
by bloated insurance company bureaucracy.
Speight lauds the recovery plan’s $24.1billion investment in
the health care infrastructure. Speight states, “This legislation funding of health
information technology, evidence-based prevention, and comparative
effectiveness research will enable reforms which we discuss in the report.”
The WISPIRG report calls for additional longer-term reforms
that crack down on drug company marketing, rein in insurance industry red tape,
and reform provider payment to encourage more effective medical care.
“This year, a new
President and a new Congress have an opportunity to pass broad health reform
that tames the waste, inefficiency, and skewed incentives that drive up our health
care costs,” noted Speight. “Wisconsin’s families
can’t afford to miss this opportunity.”
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WISPIRG is a statewide, nonprofit non partisan citizen-based advocacy
organization.
