MONROE - Gov. Jim Doyle said there's a lot the federal government could learn from Wisconsin as it discusses national health care reform.
"I think there are a lot of things Wisconsin has done right," Doyle said Tuesday during a visit with the editorial board of The Monroe Times. The governor said he has been talking to White House officials about the state's successes.
Those, he said, include having 98 percent of Wisconsin residents with health care insurance - the second highest rate in the U.S.
Doyle touted BadgerCare and SeniorCare as success stories, and said a second phase of BadgerCare Plus, which is just beginning, will reach working people "who don't have a number of children and are in low-wage jobs." There's no health care they can afford, Doyle said.
"We all end up paying when there are people who have nothing (for health care)," Doyle said.
Doyle would like to see the federal government apply the "simple, easy to understand" approach of Wisconsin's SeniorCare to the national Medicare Part D prescription drug plan. The governor said that costs have been cut in half by the state negotiating with drug companies.
"I'm sure a lot of people in Monroe would say it's a lifesaver," Doyle said of the SeniorCare program.
Doyle said "it's sort of too bad a public (health insurance) option has become the thing everybody focuses on" in the national debate. He would like to see something similar to a proposal for Wisconsin he "had to put on the back-burner" because of the economic downturn, but hopes to get to "in a few years" to put small businesses into larger buying pools.
He said the key to such a proposal was that everyone in a community would need to be rated as the same level, meaning they'd receive the same coverage at the same cost, without regard to medical preconditions or occupation.
In such an arrangement, employers and employees would work together to decide what plans work best for them.
"They wouldn't all have to have the same plan," Doyle said.
"I think there are a lot of things Wisconsin has done right," Doyle said Tuesday during a visit with the editorial board of The Monroe Times. The governor said he has been talking to White House officials about the state's successes.
Those, he said, include having 98 percent of Wisconsin residents with health care insurance - the second highest rate in the U.S.
Doyle touted BadgerCare and SeniorCare as success stories, and said a second phase of BadgerCare Plus, which is just beginning, will reach working people "who don't have a number of children and are in low-wage jobs." There's no health care they can afford, Doyle said.
"We all end up paying when there are people who have nothing (for health care)," Doyle said.
Doyle would like to see the federal government apply the "simple, easy to understand" approach of Wisconsin's SeniorCare to the national Medicare Part D prescription drug plan. The governor said that costs have been cut in half by the state negotiating with drug companies.
"I'm sure a lot of people in Monroe would say it's a lifesaver," Doyle said of the SeniorCare program.
Doyle said "it's sort of too bad a public (health insurance) option has become the thing everybody focuses on" in the national debate. He would like to see something similar to a proposal for Wisconsin he "had to put on the back-burner" because of the economic downturn, but hopes to get to "in a few years" to put small businesses into larger buying pools.
He said the key to such a proposal was that everyone in a community would need to be rated as the same level, meaning they'd receive the same coverage at the same cost, without regard to medical preconditions or occupation.
In such an arrangement, employers and employees would work together to decide what plans work best for them.
"They wouldn't all have to have the same plan," Doyle said.