Health Care Costs Concern All

By Scott Culver
Communications Specialist
WEA Trust

December 2004

Terrorism, the war in Iraq, and the economy worry all Ameri-cans, but a recent survey found that the most critical issue for a growing number of us is health care costs.

A survey by the nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute in Washington, D.C., found that 22% of those surveyed ranked health care the nation’s No. 1 problem, ahead of the budget deficit, terrorism, taxes, and the myriad other issues that dominated the recent presidential election.

And that concern extends beyond the cost of health care, the survey found. An increasing number of Americans – now 30% – rate the health care system as poor.

There is evidence the U.S. health care system doesn’t work well. According to an Institute of Medicine report, up to 98,000 Americans die annually from preventable medical mistakes in hospitals – that’s the equivalent of a fully loaded commercial airliner crashing every day.

Add to that the fact that health care costs, on average, double every eight years, and you can understand the growing concern.

At the WEA Trust, we recognize that rising health care costs will require fundamental reforms at the state level. That’s why we continue to advance The New Wisconsin Idea, our innovative four-step plan for tackling the state’s health care cost crisis.

These four reforms together would fundamentally alter the state’s health care delivery systems, thereby reducing costs and improving the quality of health care in Wisconsin.

If enacted, these reforms would make more affordable health care available to every resident of the state. The New Wisconsin Idea advocates:

• Creating a large purchasing pool to buy drugs based on effectiveness. The Trust embarked on this last year and launched WisconsinRx, a statewide not-for-profit drug-purchasing cooperative.
  
  
• Developing a centralized clearinghouse for processing claims information and collecting medical data to reduce administrative costs and to enhance the safety and effectiveness of health care.
  
  
• Establishing transparency in health care costs, quality, and efficiency.
  
  
• Making health care more accessible by having the state provide preventive and catastrophic care to all its citizens through a centers of excellence program.

To learn more about The New Wisconsin Idea, visit weatrust.com and enter “New Wisconsin Idea” in the search box at the top of the page.

Posted November 19, 2004