In his 2025-27 budget address, Governor Evers devoted a significant portion of his remarks to blaming health insurers as the cause of many Wisconsinites, unfortunately, struggling to afford and receive healthcare. Healthcare costs are too high. We agree. Costs in the United States continue to rise because the price to get care in a hospital, or other healthcare facilities, and buy a prescription drug is generally higher here than any other country.
We are disappointed to see numerous items in Governor Evers’ Executive State Budget that can only be viewed as a direct attack on one of the very few entities in healthcare that exist to negotiate lower healthcare prices on behalf of patients and employers, thereby helping to keep healthcare accessible and affordable.
We need to tamp down on unproductive rhetoric and exchange it for an intentional discourse on the totality of the healthcare delivery system and the root causes of high costs. Conversations about meaningful reforms to our healthcare system need to be a priority and we look forward to opportunities for those discussions.
The concerning rhetoric we heard during Governor Ever’s budget address and his policy recommendations will only further encourage practices that allow healthcare spending to go unchecked. These provisions will likely have the opposite effect – they will ultimately increase costs for consumers and employers.
We share the concern of employers statewide who are keenly aware of and concerned with the increasingly high costs of healthcare. Health plans and employers are the only check on those increasingly expensive healthcare costs.
We know the healthcare system is complex. Health insurance is one of the most highly regulated industries, and one of the only with administrative costs and profits capped by federal law for large segments of the industry. Removing the few remaining tools health plans and employers have to manage costs and ensure patients are receiving safe, appropriate, high-quality care is not a step in the right direction.
We hope to see these misguided provisions removed from the budget. We are eager to work with legislators interested in reforms to promote innovation, increase the pipeline of providers, lower healthcare costs for consumers, and stop pointing fingers at those who pay the bills.