2018 Wisconsin Health Insurance Cost Ranking |
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News - Articles for State & Local |
Written by Citizen Action of Wisconsin, Robert Kraig |
Wednesday, 20 December 2017 17:15 |
http://newiprogressive.com/images/stories/S5/affordablecareact-s5.jpg STATEWIDE - Citizen Action of Wisconsin released its 12th Annual Wisconsin Health Insurance Cost Ranking report Wednesday morning on a statewide media call. A full audio recording of the media call can be downloaded here. The full report includes 19 charts ranking the cities and regions of Wisconsin on health insurance costs, rate of inflation, and quality. The full report can be downloaded here. This year’s report finds wide disparities between higher and lower cost regions of Wisconsin, as well as large differences in the rate of health insurance inflation, causing some Wisconsinites to pay thousands of dollars more than others in less expensive regions of the state. Overall, the report finds that Wisconsin health insurance premiums for large and medium sized employers have more than tripled since 2000, increasing 209% since the year 2000 statewide, and as much 366% in some areas.
New to this year’s report is data that reveals a decoupling of health insurance inflation rates between large group insurance and other types of coverage. This new trend provides evidence that efforts at the national level to undermine the ACA are having a major negative impact on people who buy insurance on their own and small businesses. Also new to this year’s report is data on how much would be saved by consumers if Wisconsin adopted the BadgerCare Public Option bill (Assembly Bill 449/Senate Bill 363). Key Findings: Wisconsin Health Insurance Cost Ranking 2018
Additional data and 16 ranking charts ranking each metro area in Wisconsin are available in the full report which can be downloaded here. “The striking numbers in this report make it clear that state lawmakers need to move beyond recent attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and put a sharp focus on making health coverage truly affordable in Wisconsin,” said Robert Kraig, the report lead author and the Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. “It is absolutely stunning that health insurance premiums have tripled since 2000, yet the Governor and the Legislature are doing nothing to address the crisis.” On the media call U.S. Representative Ron Kind (WI-3) called for an end to attempts to sabotage the ACA, including elements of the tax bill that passed today, and for new reforms such as a Medicare buy-in for people down to 55 years of age and Medicaid buy-in proposals. "The results here show that Congress needs to be focused on challenging health prices but is currently doing nothing," said Congressman Kind. "We should be be holding hearings on pharmaceutical prices, looking very closely at the major medical consolidation of hospitals and insurers that lead to less competition and less price constraint. Instead, Republicans are forcing a tax bill that will raise prices and will lead to 13 million more uninsured Americans." “I buy an individual plan without subsidies. I am a small business owner and there are many of us entrepreneurs who rely on the Affordable Care Act for coverage”, said Alice Thompson, who owns an environmental consulting company in South Milwaukee. “Now I will be paying $974 a month for health insurance. That’s more than my mortgage! Wisconsin needs to take action to challenge these sky high medical prices.” |
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