Kaufert on Hospital Tax

In a March 14 press release, Rep Dean Kaufert and State Sen Mike Ellis critize the proposed Hospital Tax. According to the release:

“The governor has called this tax a “win-win,” and he has even alleged that four hospitals in Neenah and Appleton will collectively gain $12.6 million more in revenues than they will pay in under the new tax,” Kaufert said...

Kaufert said the governor’s numbers were based on an unrealistic best-case scenario that ignored numerous federal rules governing medical assistance. Federal rules, for example, impose reimbursement limits, forbid “hold-harmless” clauses and require some reimbursement dollars to pass through HMOs. When those rules are applied, the numbers are vastly altered, he said...

“The governor is proposing to take more than $11 million out of the Fox Cities with just this tax alone, to say nothing of the proposed increases in cigarette taxes, gas taxes, drivers licenses and a whole host of fees and taxes,” said Kaufert. “This is a sick tax that is unhealthy for the Fox Cities.”

...Kaufert and Ellis said the tax is even more odious because it is absolutely unnecessary to fund our current medical assistance programs. Under the governor’s proposal, the new hospital tax, along with the increased cigarette tax and a raid on the Patients’ Compensation Fund is simply being used to replace more than $800 million in current spending over two years.

According to an article on the hospital tax in the Milwaukee JS on February 16:

Gov. Jim Doyle's proposal to increase federal funding for state health programs through a tax on hospitals would shift some of the cost of providing care for the poor and the uninsured to many of the state's most profitable hospitals. For this reason, the proposed tax would produce some clear losers and clear winners.

The losers overall would be hospitals in affluent, suburban communities such as Waukesha, Brookfield and Mequon. The winners would be hospitals near poor neighborhoods, such as Aurora Sinai Medical Center and Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare-St. Joseph, both in Milwaukee.

The governor has proposed using some - though not all - of the revenue to pay hospitals more to care for people in state health programs such as Medicaid and BadgerCare.

State Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch discusses the hospital tax here. Pic below of Huebsch from his legislator website.