2017 WI Health Insurance Cost Rankings - Media Call

2017 Wisconsin Health Insurance Cost Ranking Report finds continuing regional disparities on cost, inflation, and quality Rate of health care inflation was more than 7x higher before Affordable Care Act Statewide: Citizen Action of Wisconsin released its 11th Annual Wisconsin Health Insurance Cost Ranking report Wednesday morning on a statewide media call. A full audio recording of the media call can be downloaded here. The full report includes 11 charts ranking the cities and regions of Wisconsin on health insurance costs, rate of inflation, and quality, and can be downloaded here. This year’s report finds wide disparities between higher and lower cost regions of Wisconsin, as well as large differences in the rate of health insurance inflation, causing some Wisconsinites to pay thousands of dollars more than others in less expensive regions of the state. New in this year’s report is an analysis of the rate of health insurance hyperinflation in each Wisconsin city before and after the Affordable Care (ACA) was fully implemented. The report finds that the rate of health insurance hyperinflation was over 7x higher in the 13 years before the implementation of ACA than it has been in the 4 years since (15% per year statewide before vs 2% per year after). In some Wisconsin cities, the decline in the rate of inflation is even more dramatic. These results call into question the claim that the health care law caused health insurance rates for most health consumers to dramatically increase, and the contention that repealing the ACA will lower the cost of health coverage. Overall, the report finds that Wisconsin health insurance premiums for large and medium sized employers have more than tripled since 2000, increasing 226% since the year 2000 statewide, and as much 381% in some areas. “The striking numbers in this report make it clear that state lawmakers need to move beyond the divisive debate over the Affordable Care Act and put a sharp focus on making health care truly affordable,” said Robert Kraig, the report lead author and the Executive Director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. “It is absolutely stunning that health insurance premiums have tripled since 2000, yet the Governor and the Legislature are doing nothing to address the crisis. Wisconsin workers and families will not have full control of their own health care decisions until we make health coverage affordable for everyone in Wisconsin.”