There will be a referendum related to health care on the ballot Tuesday, not in every Wisconsin community, but in 22 of them. The item calls on the next state Legislature to guarantee affordable, quality health care for every person in the state by the end of 2009. Health care at least as good as state lawmakers receive. Two communities in Milwaukee County will be voting: Oak Creek and South Milwaukee. WUWM’s Marge Pitrof reports.
The referendum will not be binding, but it will enable voters in South Milwaukee and Oak Creek to convey their feeling to legislators about health care reform. Robert Kraig works for the advocacy group, Citizen Action of Wisconsin. It spearheaded the drive by helping collect enough signatures in 22 communities to place the item on the ballot in those locales. Kraig predicts they’ll send a message to Madison that many households are hurting because they can’t afford good medical care.
“We think that the financial crisis that’s gripping the country right now actually makes the need for health care reform more urgent. There’s research that shows health care costs are the leading cause of bankruptcies and in fact may even be the leading cause of home foreclosures", Kraig says.
Kraig says his group targeted specific districts, districts where it believes it could pick up friendly votes in the Assembly and Senate.
“Because that’s where there’s an opportunity to have this discussion and to create a real mandate for legislators being elected. If you don’t have a hotly-contested election, then the health care discussion isn’t as relevant, doesn’t have as much of an impact on the Legislature", Kraig says.
The race in Oak Creek and South Milwaukee that will share the ballot with the referendum features incumbent Republican Assemblyman Mark Honadel and political newcomer, Glen Brower, a Democrat. Honadel says it’s always been a priority for him to find ways to make health care more affordable and he’ll continue to work on the issue. But he says Citizen Action favors a government-run health care system that taxpayers fund, and that he will not support.
“Every legislator wants to address health care and reign in costs, make it accessible for everyone who is deserving. You know, in America, we are compassionate people. But sometimes, we end up paying for illegal aliens, for people who just expect everything for free. I’m just not in that club", Honadel says.
According to Honadel, one of the best ways to ensure that more people can afford health care is to disclose how much it costs to buy prescription drugs and have medical procedures. He says that way, consumers can shop and force providers to compete. While Honadel wants health care to remain a private sector function, his Democratic challenger says the only way all residents will be treated fairly is if there’s only one system. So Glen Brower favors the referendum’s approach: universal care.
“Basically the premise is that both the employer and employee would be contributing members within the health care plan. It would provide affordable health care for everybody throughout the state. How it would actually be executed, I think the mechanics of that actually need to be worked out yet", Brower says.
Both Brower and Mark Honadel agree that the health care issue defines the ideological difference between the two. They disagree on the extent to which they think government should be involved in people’s lives. The candidates also concur that it’s been a noble effort on the part of citizens to try to make something happen on the health care issue. Next year, it will again be in the hands of the Legislature, where the parties have refused to budge.
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