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Letter to the Editor: Control costs by assessing hospitals
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 7, 2008
The rising cost of health care continues to challenge businesses and families in Wisconsin, but lawmakers have an opportunity to help hospitals control costs while still meeting the needs of Medicaid patients.
A proposal has been introduced by Gov. Jim Doyle to deal with a $600 million budget shortfall for the state. The hospital assessment has emerged as a solution for part of that gap because of the additional federal money it would bring to the state.
I personally can attest to the negative economic consequence of not adequately funding our state Medicaid program. Businesses continue to feel the ill effects of "cost shifting" by hospitals struggling to make up for the losses they incur treating Medicaid patients.
Nowhere is it more apparent than right here in our own backyard. The Wisconsin Hospital Association estimates that the state underfunded Medicaid providers nearly $3 billion over the past 12 years. In 2006, $205 million was passed on to businesses in southeastern Wisconsin.
Until the state adequately funds the Medicaid program, businesses and ultimately taxpayers will bear the burden of financing this critical program.
The hospital assessment provides meaningful reform by utilizing untapped federal funds to address a problem that has existed for more than a decade. State lawmakers should do the right thing for Wisconsin businesses and taxpayers and enact this proposal now.
Stephen A. Roell
Chief Executive Officer
Johnson Controls Inc.
Milwaukee