Wisconsin Healthcare Guarantee (2008)

A Wisconsin Health Care Guarantee ballot proposition was on the local ballot in several Wisconsin communities in 2008.

Citizen of Action of Wisconsin was successful in earning a ballot line for the proposal in 22 counties and municipalities statewide. The referendum was non-binding and advisory only.

Text of Measure

Shall the next state legislature enact health care reform legislation by Dec. 31, 2009, that guarantees every Wisconsin resident affordable health care coverage as good as what is provided to state legislators?

Status

Approved.

Results by community:

Community	Yes	No	Result
Appleton	23,172	8,544	Approved
Altoona	2,146	831	Approved
Barron County	14,713	4,457	Approved
Black River Falls	1,104	299	Approved
Dane County	176,770	63,765	Approved
Douglas County	16,967	3,891	Approved
Eau Claire	25,536	9,025	Approved
Hudson	4,851	1,769	Approved
Green Bay	28,464	10,354	Approved
La Crosse County	37,293	12,196	Approved
Menasha	5,094	1,879	Approved
Menomonie	5,806	1,486	Approved
Mondovi	729	236	Approved
New Richmond	2,923	779	Approved
Oak Creek	10,300	5,345	Approved
Oshkosh	21,936	6,087	Approved
Polk County	14,232	7,179	Approved
River Falls	1,007	279	Approved
South Milwaukee	7,235	2,872	Approved
Tomah	2,732	577	Approved
Viroqua	1,592	463	Approved
Washburn County	6,859	1,852	Approved

Support

Citizen Action of Wisconsin are the main supporters of the referendum. Robert Kraig, Communications Director for Citizen Action for Wisconsin cited the need for the referenda on this basis: "Premiums for health insurance have doubled since 2000, and there's no end in sight." "There's a lot of frustration out there that the state Legislature has not gotten its act together."

Kraig claimed the organization's membership of 90,000 as evidence of the high level of concern and as a supporting point the referendum would be successful. Kraig also said during an interview with WTMJ-TV 4 of Milwaukee: "It has to be health care that's as good as legislators receive. It has to be affordable and available to everyone, and has to be done by the end of 2009."

Citizens Action also tried to get this question on the November 2006 ballot. Kraig has said that this was a huge part of helping the Democratic controlled State Senate getting the Healthy Wisconsin Plan pushed through the legislature in 2007. Healthy Wisconsin was put on during the 2007 battle over the State Budget in Wisconsin that resulted in the budget being 100 plus days overdue with the measure passing the Senate but being killed in the Republican controlled assembly.

Opposition

No official campaign towards its opposition has been organized.

The Wisconsin State Journal editorial board is opposed to the measure.

There has been criticism by academic and health care experts over this referendum. "In polls, 70 percent — maybe more — of Americans will say, 'Yes we want universal health care. Let's just tap into that ground-swell of support for an abstract idea.' It's not concrete. The devil is in the details of legislation. How much is it going to cost? Who's covered for what?" said David Siemers, a University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh political science professor during an August 2008 interview with the Appleton Post Crescent.

This measure along with the Healthy Wisconsin plan has received a lot of bad rap from legislators. Rep. Steve Wieckert (R-Appleton) said in an interview: "A lot of times these groups might not come up with what I consider the right answer," said Wieckert, "but they do address a legitimate and right problem, and that's a contribution in itself." "The Legislature needs to dedicate more attention to the issue," Wieckert also stated, "but legislators need to think of health care as being more than illness care. It means looking at it through the lens of wellness and preventive programs." "That's the only (way) we can start in a long-term structural way to reduce health care costs," Wieckert stated.

Darlene Weis, a Marquette University health care policy expert, says part of the problem is that lawmakers don't always understand the issues surrounding health care. "They all have their areas of expertise and interests, and the rest is mostly what their friends and colleagues (persuade) them to vote for or who they all vote to," she said. As health care gets tossed around like a hot political potato, dialogues are reduced to "all-or-nothing" proposals, Siemers said. "In a way, this is the Democrats' abortion issue. Republicans beat up on Democrats for 20 years about abortion because they could take a position that appeals to a lot of people without having any consequences to that position," he said. Now Democrats "can trumpet their moral superiority for wanting health care for everyone and they don't really have to do anything."

External links

• Citizen Action of Wisconsin website

See also

• Wisconsin 2008 ballot measures

Additional reading

• Health-care advisory referendum passes, but ..., Wisconsin State Journal, November 9, 2008
• Residents ask for health care, The Badger Herald, November 6, 2008
• Douglas County voters approve health care referendum (dead link), Superior Telegram, November 5, 2008
• Referendum's real message fuzzy, Green Bay Press Gazette, November 6, 2008