Sen. K. Vinehout's blog

“I am 24 years old and my job doesn’t provide health insurance,” the young man told me. “What do I need to do to qualify for my parents plan?”

Recently the Governor signed into law my proposal to require insurance companies to cover adult children up to age 27 on their parents plan. The new law, which goes into effect next February, is part of my five point plan for health insurance reform.

Under the new law parents will be able to add or continue to cover adult children on their policies. Adult children must be unmarried and must not be offered a less expensive plan through their employer. Insurance companies can charge no more than what they charge for under-age children. Parents must file paperwork each year verifying their child qualifies.

College students, whose education is interrupted for active duty in the National Guard or the Reserves, upon their return home and to school can be covered on their parents insurance regardless of age. This is a small way we can say ‘Thank you” to our returning heroes who interrupted their education plans to answer the call to duty.

Putting together the state budget is always a difficult process. But it is made more so by the deep budget deficit. A few weeks ago, legislative leaders and the Governor hammered out a deal. Later the deal was pushed through the legislature’s budget committee.

This week members of the Assembly are scheduled to vote on the budget. Behind the scenes members are told, “This budget is bad. We need to pass it as quick as possible and get out of town.”

In the Capitol, the culture is one of a few making the decisions and the many having their arms twisted to go along with the deal.

The culture of the Capitol has to change. Our job as elected officials is to take what’s happening in our districts to Madison. Once in Madison, we all have to be involved in making decisions. If we agree to deals we are not party to making, we not only give up our own power, we give up the power of the voters in our district.

Wait Lady,” said the Jackson County man. “I am paying MORE in taxes and you just said the state has reduced taxes. Are you nuts?”

“And right you are!” I told the man. “You ARE paying more in taxes. But some are paying a LOT less.”

Another man wrote me. “It is a slap in the face that us taxpayers be thought so gullible as to believe that propaganda.” The man went on…

The last property I purchased was about 12 years ago. The property tax {then} was about $900. Last year it was about $2,400. When I complained about it, they always told me ‘state mandate.’”

“We must protect our land,” urged the Wisconsin Secretary of Agriculture. “Land is our most precious natural resource.”

Secretary Rod Nilsestuen testified before a Joint Hearing of the Assembly Agriculture Committee and the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Higher Education. I had the distinct honor of chairing the Joint Hearing. The topic was protecting farmland – specifically the Working Lands Initiative.

We are permanently losing farmland at an alarming rate. State-wide we are losing about one township of productive farmland every year. UW research documented our state lost about 100,000 acres in the first five years of this decade. We simply cannot sustain such a loss of a vital part of our economy, our heritage and an irreplaceable natural resource.

People gathered in the Buffalo County board room. Faces were anxious. They listened as company representatives reviewed new flood plain maps prepared for FEMA.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is reviewing maps of flood plains across the country. They made it to Buffalo County and not far behind will be Pierce, Pepin and Trempealeau.

Local residents grew concerned when homes were added to the flood plain on the new map. They worried insurance rates would skyrocket making it unaffordable. Many saw the exclusions on the flood insurance as making the insurance basically worthless.

“Why pay for worthless insurance?” one man asked me.

“Senator Kathleen Vinehout is known for pushing socialized medicine, but no bill was passed because it was ridiculously expensive” claims a letter to the editor in this weekend’s Eau Claire Leader Telegram.

To not change our health insurance system is ridiculously expensive.

We have the highest priced system in the world. Per person costs are twice that of any other country. The share health care takes out of our economy is far greater than any other country. You’d think we would be the healthiest people on the planet.

But we are not.

This week I was contacted by a gentleman whose health insurance costs are eating up nearly a quarter of his take home income. He writes, “I believe I will have to drop my $468 premium per month health insurance starting in November.”

While problems in the financial market and the presidential campaign take center stage in the press, the problems in the lives of real people continue to focus on health care – especially rising costs.

Concerns make their way to my office in many forms: work injuries not covered by employers, businesses looking at double-digit inflation in premiums every year, employees with dependents not covered, people without insurance delaying care who later discover serious illness.

Editor Note - This begins a new feature on Uppity Wisconsin, where legislators will begin submitting blog entries and op-ed features to the blog.  Let us know what you think - we'll start out with State Senator Kathleen Vinehout's column on Health Care Reform.

“We have got to figure out how to fix health care. I think we need to look at what we are doing other places.” The man called my office to share ideas on how to reform health care. “Yes,” I agreed.

What have we done in other places? My constituent was thinking about ideas like workers compensation, unemployment compensation and the state employees’ health plan. Wisconsin has several examples of initiatives taken to solve insurance problems. But so have other states and Wisconsin is actually lagging behind many of those states.