OPEN LETTER TO GOVERNOR JIM DOYLE
July 4th, 2007
Jim Doyle, Governor
Wisconsin State Capitol
Madison, WI 53707
Dear Governor Jim Doyle,
In your speech to the Wisconsin Democratic State Convention you gave an excellent over view of the many good things you and your administration have accomplished -- you also talked about some of the things you still want to get done, including education, the environment, taxes and health care. You described Badger Care Plus which would expand and improve Badger Care so that more people with limited incomes would be eligible for its benefits and how its passage would mean that 98% of all Wisconsin residents would have health care coverage.
However in this speech you omitted the one proposal that would have significantly improved health care coverage for those who already have insurance coverage, for those who are not eligible for Badger Care but earn too little to afford to buy health care coverage and for those with a pre-existing condition. Inadequate or no health care coverage prevents large numbers of people from reaching or remaining in the economic middle class.
In your speech at the convention you would have brought down the house had you come out in support of the State Senate's amendment to the budget bill, the Healthy Wisconsin Plan. You would have become a hero to those middle income workers most vulnerable to increased health care costs or loss of insurance coverage, won state and national recognition for your support of significant health care reform, helped make Wisconsin a national leader, and in general strengthened your support by those who really do live in the real world
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported the next day that one of your reasons for not supporting the Healthy Wisconsin budget amendment was because you lived in the "real world". With this comment you implied that most Wisconsin Democrats (including the Democratic State Senators), the 500,000 Wisconsinites without health insurance, the large number of Wisconsinites who face or are at risk for bankruptcy because of health care costs, the Wisconsinites unable to afford coverage because of pre-existing conditions, the delegates to the State Democratic Convention and many other residents of the state do not live in the "real world".
Passage of "Healthy Wisconsin: Your Choice, Your Plan" presented in the Senate's budget bill amendment to this year's budget bill is important for Wisconsin individuals, families and businesses. It can be a problem for some small businesses that don't presently provide health care for their employees, but it will insure that there is no employer or employee without health care coverage, that all businesses will face the same costs and that all businesses can compete for the best employees without having to figure out how to get health care coverage for them.
Too often the "real world" is defined as the world of big money interests that continue to dominate so much of our state and national politics, the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the many "we-have-no-responsibility-for-others" groups, the health insurance companies that will not be able to pay as high profits to their CEOs and stock holders and other parts of the medical-industrial-complex that profit the most from the present chaotic system.
For most Americans the "real world" is better defined by the daily realities faced by individuals, families, businesses and communities, particularly those constantly threatened with the loss of or inadequate health care coverage. That is the world in which we, as Family Physicians, have lived and practiced in for the past 50 years.
We hope you will re-look at the "Healthy Wisconsin: Your Choice, Your Plan" amendment to this year's state budget, meet with the Senators most involved in developing it, consider its implications for the vast majority of Wisconsin's citizens and then support it. To do so will make you a state and national hero.
Several months ago both houses of the California legislature passed a very good single payer type bill that was economically sound, cost saving and assured all California residents of high quality health care coverage. The Republican governor vetoed it and later on submitted his own more costly less effective plan. Wisconsin has before it a very different type bill, the Healthy Wisconsin Plan, which improves coverage for the largest portion of Wisconsin residents whether insured or uninsured. It should be implemented along with Badger Care Plus, which provides coverage for those least able to afford good coverage. We would like to see the Wisconsin legislature pass both Badger Care Plus and the Healthy Wisconsin Plan, and that you, our Democratic governor sign it into law.
You have the ability to facilitate victory or defeat for both of these proposals. We want you to know that we will do all we can to encourage all Wisconsin residents to speak up to get both these proposals passed. Your help is vital to this effort. It is time we-the-people stand together and demand that all our elected representatives pass significant health care reform as represented in Badger Care Plus and the "Healthy Wisconsin: Your Choice, Your Plan" amendment to this years budget bill and that you, as our Democratic governor sign these into law. We must end piece meal costly inadequate adjustments to the present irrational system of funding and using our excellent health care resources. Together we must say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH and take the great stride ahead that these two proposals offer.
We urge you to work with the Senate majority to get the Healthy Wisconsin plan passed and thus help get an assembly majority so more of your shared ideas and vision for the state can be accomplished. Big money may be against this, the voters are mostly for it.
Thanks for all you have done and are doing to move Wisconsin forward as a state that believes in its people and works to provide the civic infrastructure that helps individuals, families, communities and businesses succeed.
Our best to you,
Gene & Linda
Eugene S. Farley, MD, MPH
Linda Fabry Farley, MD
2299 Spring Rose Road
Verona WI 53593
Tel: 608-845-8724