One Wisconsin Now

George Lightbourn is the former budget advisor for Governor Scott McCallum. Now he is a glorified shill for corporate interests at the right wing Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. Thursday corporate interests attacked the $2-billion-saving “Healthy Wisconsin” plan through their chosen outlet. Before taking WPRI’s rantings too seriously, perhaps one should first consider the source, because Lightbourn has zero credibility on sound budgeting and related issues.

When George Lightbourn was working for Governor McCallum, he played a major role in digging our state into a historic budget deficit. Then they had the bright idea of selling off $6 billion in future tobacco settlement payments for only a short term fix to a budgetary problem that he helped cause in the first place. Certainly his advice is not the kind that we needed then and it is definitely not now for this health care crisis.

Lightbourn twists himself into an ideological pretzel in his recent attack on the savings provided by the Healthy Wisconsin plan. Conveniently Lightbourn provides no real healthcare reform, rather he only attacks the bold initiative of the State Senate. In the attack of Healthy Wisconsin, he makes clear that he disapproves of hugely successful government healthcare programs like Medicare, BadgerCare and SeniorCare. This extreme position is not only a purely ideologically driven one but also is totally out of step with the vast majority of people that have greatly benefited from such successful programs.

Conservatives sing the praises of “the market” when it comes to many issues. More recently they have applied their theories to health care. Unfortunately their calls for a “market driven” solution consist of little more than promoting health savings accounts. Frankly, the verdict of “the market” has already come in and it has determined that HSA’s primarily benefit the wealthy. This is certainly no surprise to progressives who have been pointing this fact out for several years.

In yet another study of HSA’s, the Government Accountability Office found that they are being used by more affluent households as tax shelters. It found that the average adjusted gross income of tax filers who made HSA contributions was $139,000 as compared to $57,000 for all other tax filers. The study also found that many HSA participants appear to be using their accounts as a tax shelter rather than paying for out-of-pocket health care costs. The GAO found that 41 percent of tax filers reporting HSA contributions in 2005 did not withdraw any funds from their accounts at any time during the year.

Even after the constant harping about HSA’s being the best thing since sliced bread, it has failed to catch on in “the market” as a whole. The only popular “market” for HSA’s appears to be the wealthy who are in search of more tax shelters. Although conservatives always chant the mantra of letting “the market speak,” they are choosing to ignore its voice on health savings accounts.

During the month of May Labor 2008 will kick off its biggest mobilization effort. Union activists all around this country will be talking to union households about Sen. McCain’s anti-worker record. In Wisconsin people will be busy recruiting for member-to-member walks and phone banks. The walks begin Saturday May 10th in Milwaukee and May 17th in Wausau, Green Bay, Kenosha, Madison, Eau Claire and La Crosse.

Much of the effort will focus on John McCain’s healthcare plan and how it leaves Working Families on Their Own. Soaring health care costs are forcing wages down for people lucky enough to have insurance. Another 47 million are uninsured. Although John McCain says he intends to combat rising costs, his proposals protect insurance company profits at the expense of working families.

A new Badger Poll released Tuesday examined Wisconsinites’ opinions on health care reform. Once again it served as another reminder that conservatives are completely out of touch with the average person. Conservatives are perpetually complaining about government programs but 76 percent of respondents favored expanding the eligibility of programs such as BaderCare and Medicaid. Although conservatives chant their “socialist” mantra whenever a proposed reform includes a government component, 61 percent of Wisconsinites said that they favored replacing the current system with one totally run by the state government.

Wisconsinites remember how conservatives ignored the healthcare crisis when they controlled the entire legislature and now they are rejecting their narrow ideologies on the subject. This new poll shows that the constant conservative talking points on healthcare are not working. The public wants substance and solutions to our healthcare crisis not blind ideology and bumper sticker slogans.

The Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals released the results of a survey Monday. It was about the working conditions faced by nurses in the Metro-Milwaukee area. The survey was taken from over 1,500 nurses and reveals that working conditions are leading to worsening quality of care issues.

A key to the problem are the high workloads, forced overtime, and even going without meal breaks. According to the survey, these things are widespread and are contributing to errors in patient care. Over 500 of the nurses gave specific examples of errors that have occurred as a result of nurse fatigue.

While the staffing problems are creating safety issues all across the healthcare system, the issues at hospitals are the most severe. Over ninety percent of hospital nurses in the survey say that there are units in their hospital that they believe are actually unsafe for patients. Seventy percent of hospital nurses say that they would worry about their own families receiving care at their own hospitals.

Next week John McCain is planning to give a number of speeches on health care. His plan will probably not give adequate focus to one of our largest problems in the area of health care, the 47 million Americans that are uninsured. It would also be wise to take note of who benefits most from McCain’s coming plan.

If John McCain’s health care plan is a boon for the big insurance and drug companies, one can hardly be surprised given McCain’s history and relationships to those industries. Since 1990, he has received $3,883,226 from the healthcare, insurance, and pharmaceutical industries. Further, it should be noted that his fundraising from these industries has dramatically increased since he began running for president last year.

Not only has the heath/insurance/pharmaceutical industries contributed these massive amounts to McCain but they have also produced lobbyists that have been very helpful to his political efforts. A total of 38 lobbyists from the industries are listed as fundraisers, co-hosts of events, or actual staffers for McCain’s campaign. At least six staffers – Charlie Black, Doug Davenport, Carlos Bonilla, Kirsten Chadwick, Bryan Cunningham, and John Green – are lobbyists for health industry companies.