By Robert Kraig, executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin
The Walker Administration recently released a report at a closed “by-invitation only” media briefing purporting to show that the new national health care reform law would have a negative impact on Wisconsin’s health insurance market. I attempted to attend the briefing but was forced to leave. Reporters were told the briefing was “off the record” and could not use recording devices or quote the speak ers. The study author, health care economist Dr. Jonathan Gruber of MIT, was not invited.
In addition to the oddly secretive method of release, the Walker Administration attempted to bury many of the most important report findings in order to create a negative impression of the new health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act. The single most significant finding in Dr. Gruber’s report is that the new law will result in 340,000 uninsured Wisconsinites gaining coverage. However, this information is not even mentioned in the Walker Administration’s press release about the report.
The Walker Administration also gave a slanted account of the impact of health care reform on Wisconsin individual and small group health insurance markets, focusing entirely on premium increases that will impact some participants. They did not highlight report findings that showed substantial premium reductions for Wisconsinites who pay the highest rates in the current market. Instead, they focused attention on those who would pay more in the short term because health care reform forces the insurance industry to end discrimination based on preexisting conditions, age, and gender, and requires higher quality coverage.
Currently, individuals and small groups which are younger and healthier get lower rates because the insurance industry discriminates against others, and because it often sells substandard policies. Insurers can deny coverage, charge discriminatory rates, or impose exclusionary riders for policyholders with preexisting conditions. Over 1 million Wisconsinites under the age of 65 have preexisting conditions serious enough to trigger such discrimination by the insurance industry. Ending this discrimination will cause some individuals who are fortunate enough to get a low premium in the current system to pay higher premiums in the short term, but in return they will get a guarantee of higher quality coverage which the insurance industry can never take away from them as they age and acquire medical conditions.
The only permanent “losers” in ending health insurance discrimination are the health insurance companies who profit by offering affordable coverage only to people who they deem less likely to file medical claims. If someone is fortunate enough to be young and healthy today, they might get a good deal from the health insurance industry, but they can lose coverage or be priced out as they age or if they acquire medical conditions. If a small employer has affordable coverage today, one employee acquiring a serious medical condition can price the whole group out of the market.
Once the Affordable Care Act is fully implemented, consumers will have a right to purchase affordable coverage in a new marketplace where the insurance industry cannot take it away or charge discriminatory rates as a person ages or their health status changes.
The way the Walker Administration handled the release of this important report raises questions about how Wisconsin will implement national health care reform. The citizens of Wisconsin must watch closely this fall when the Legislature is expected to take up this crucial issue.
