Visit recalls Wis. health care debate

MADISON (AP) - The thorniest issues facing President Barack Obama as he pushes for health care reform are familiar in Wisconsin, including how to pay for coverage and what role government should play in the marketplace.

A universal health care plan approved in the Wisconsin Senate two years ago generated intense debate over those two issues but opposition ultimately stalled the plan. Now Democrats who control the Wisconsin Legislature hope Obama and members of Congress can achieve reform where they have failed.

"For those who do support the idea of health insurance and health care reform, this is the best chance we have," said said Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee, an author of the so-called Healthy Wisconsin plan. "What the president is talking about, we've already essentially tried here in this state."

Obama plans to visit a Green Bay high school on Thursday to press Congress to move quickly to fix the nation's broken health care system.

Congress is considering how to pay for the revamp to cover up to 50 million uninsured, including possibly taxing health care benefits, raising taxes on the wealthy and making spending cuts. Lawmakers are also considering whether to create a government-run plan to compete with private insurers, which Obama supports but Republicans oppose.

In Wisconsin, Democrats who control the Senate passed their reform plan in the state budget in 2007. It would have required residents not covered by other government programs to enroll in a health pool, where they could pick from several competing plans.

Instead of providing a government plan to compete with private insurers, the proposal would have created a government board to pick plans and set requirements for coverage. The goals were to cover the uninsured, use the government's purchasing power to cut costs and increase the focus on prevention - all elements of Obama's plan.

"What Obama is doing is very similar to Healthy Wisconsin," said Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Alma, another supporter. "We didn't have a public option, but we had the same idea, which was plans competing against each other."

The plan prompted an intense backlash because it was financed with a new, $15 billion annual payroll tax on employees and employers. Business groups and Republicans, who then controlled the Assembly, called it a massive tax increase that would hurt businesses and amount to a government takeover of the health care system.

Republicans are making similar arguments against Obama's push to provide a government-run plan.

"I think Healthy Wisconsin was a preview of what the Obama administration is coming out with," said former Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch, a Republican from West Salem who helped defeat the plan. "It really gets back to a tremendous influence of government into our entire health care policy."

Supporters argued the Wisconsin plan would save many employers and residents money because their taxes would be less than what they were paying for health care premiums. And they defended the government's role as that of a referee.

Vinehout acknowledged the payroll tax was the plan's biggest vulnerability. She said a federal law forbidding states from mandating employer benefits made those taxes the only viable financing option.

Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle never warmed to the idea and it was ultimately stripped from the budget after weeks of debate.

Republicans used the issue, including a claim that illegal immigrants would have received coverage, to attack Democrats in legislative elections last year. Nonetheless, Democrats won control of both houses.

Wisconsin lawmakers have put health care reform on hold as they wait for Congress to act. In the meantime, Doyle has moved to expand government programs to cover all children regardless of family income and more low-income families. Starting next week, up to 40,000 more low-income adults with no children will become eligible for the first time.

The governor says those steps have made Wisconsin a national leader in health care reform but they are short of the fundamental changes some in his party want.

Erpenbach said advertisements that attacked Democratic candidates over the plan failed, which is a lesson for Obama. He said the public gave Democrats credit for trying to fix a system they know is broken.

"The public as a whole is ready for a universal system where everybody is covered with choice," said Erpenbach, who has been invited by the White House to attend Obama's event. "People are ahead of the Legislature on this."