Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, in cahoots with Wisconsin's Club for Growth and others, came out today guns blazing against Healthy Wisconsin and pimping "Healthier Choices."
Unfortunately for them, they were firing squirt guns.
WMC's survey claiming a majority of Wisconsinites oppose Healthy WI is an absolute joke. Its "Healthier Choices" plan should be translated as "Pay more for fewer choices." In a true marketplace of ideas the WMC's broadside it would be laughed out of the discourse.
Sadly, we're in a marketplace where the WMC and CfG have millions to spend and a marketplace where Charlie Sykes will flog the thing endlessly as he denounces Healthy WI as "a complete government takeover of health care." That's not spin, Chuck; that's a lie.
While the Brawler is disheartened that this tripe could play some role in the coming health care debate, some items still managed to "illicit" a mordant chuckle.
Such as...
... The way the survey claims a majority of Wisconsin voters disapprove of Healthy Wisconsin based on responses to survey question that says the system "will replace Wisconsin's current private health insurance system with a universal health insurance system managed by the state government." Weird, because Healthy WI does not replace the "current private health insurance system" and it won't create a regime "managed by the state government." Or did I miss the part about how the state government is going to seize the headquarters of different insurers?
... The way flack Jim Pugh claims WMC, the Wisconsin Hospital Association and the Wisconsin Association of Health Plans will "encourage the continued development of a consumer-driven health care environment in Wisconsin. Promising collaborative efforts to collect and report information related to quality, safety and cost should continue, without government interference (nice touch, guys -- Brawler), among providers and health plans." Uh huh. Can't wait to see the WHA's vigorous drive for greater disclosure. And if these groups are begging for greater disclosure, why isn't it on the Assembly GOP's agenda.
... The way the Republican polling firm responsible for this travesty, Public Opinion Strategies, appropriately has as its acronym POS.
... The way Healthier Choices is presented as something new when it feels like a rehash of past WMC calls for shifting cost and risk onto employees who can't afford it. Then you realize it's not a rehash. It's the same old hash! On page 7, it offers proposals for the 2003-05 biennium.
Is the WMC really doing its dues-paying members a service by entering the health care debate with a proposal that's been gathering dust for four years?
Its members deserve better than this clown show.
As, of course, does Wisconsin.
Now the big question: Will John Torinus write this up in his Sunday column for the Journal Sentinel?
Why doesn't the WMC demand more disclosure NOW? Why aren't carriers and hospitals alike offering more NOW? Why in the world would the Healthy Wisconsin proposal have to be defeated in order for these things to occur? The answer of course is that they will never occur.
Posted by: vita | August 22, 2007 at 07:19 AM
It has become more than clear that WMC stands for Weapons of Mass Confuscation. Or, to save a few syllables, Mass Crap. This survey, well picked apart here, is just more of the same from WMC.
It has become an evil organization, at least its administration, and they apparently just get rubber-stamped by a board that, from their resumes, ought to be smarter. So it just must be a line on their resumes (read: Milwaukee Public Museum board and where that went).
And particularly of concern, considering that several board members are from Milwaukee (at least their offices; they probably live in the burbs), but WMC's anti-Milwaukee bias continues.
Look up the board members (online) and do not patronize their businesses, law firms, etc., at least. It's harder to avoid all the businesses of all the members, but at least hold the board accountable -- and let them know why -- for letting WMC's administrators try to run and ruin this state.
Posted by: Kay | August 22, 2007 at 10:56 AM
What else would you expect. Club for Growth gets substantial funding from the insurance industry, just as does the Fraser and Heritage Institutes. Too bad. Healthy Wisconsin is good for Wisconsin businesses but the trade associations are trying to block it despite its members best interests. As well, they actually sell and profit by employee health insurance. Could there be a severe conflict of interest. Where are their member's heads?
Posted by: Jack Lohman | August 22, 2007 at 02:51 PM
WMC demand disclosure? Why doesn't it disclose to its members its own internal conflicts of interest? Insurance companies, hospitals, and its own insurance sales department! As a former CEO I quit WMC years ago because of its bias towards Philip Morris. Todays members should do the same.
Posted by: Jack Lohman | August 23, 2007 at 06:12 AM