Citizen Action of Wisconsin has again pointed out the differences in health costs in Wisconsin versus Minnesota. The group each year releaseshealth insurance market rates.
Executive Director Robert Kraig says Minnesota embraced and built upon the Affordable Care Act and as a result, their costs to get healthcare insurance are noticeably lower than those in Wisconsin.
A year ago, minority Democrats in the legislature authored a bill that would enable qualified people needing health care to use the public credits through the Affordable Care Act and Wisconsin BadgerCare to get health insurance.
One of the authors of the bill, State Senator LaTonya Johnson of Milwaukee..
"...providing a BadgerCare Public Option would insure that the cost of health care can remain lower. Generally speaking, these rates are lower than rates paid by commercial insurance companies. This would also insure that no matter where Wisconsinites work, live or how much they make, there would be an opportunity for them to enroll in the BadgerCare program..."
Johnson is a member of the budget-writing Joint Finance Committee. Another minority member, Representative Chris Taylor said the Walker administration refusal to take the money offered by the federal government through the Affordable Care Act has cost Wisconsinsites.
Governor-elect Tony Evers has said he supports the Public Option.
Wisconsinites who buy insurance on their own would pay premiums and deductibles on average 32.5 percent less if a BadgerCare Public Option were available Wisconsinites on the individual insurance market will face premiums and deductibles 50 percent higher on average than their counterparts in Minnesota.
Republicans say the problem is the Affordable Care Act itself and taking they money, they feel, would only make the system worse.
