I’ll Continue to Insist on Fairness for Rural States La Crosse Tribune July 19, 2009 Congress is finally getting down to the business of reforming our broken health care system, and it’s an effort that is long overdue. In my 17 years of holding listening sessions around the state, I’ve heard more from Wisconsinites about the problems with our health care system than about any other issue. I am working in the Senate to pass legislation that provides guaranteed, affordable, high-quality health care for all Americans and includes a public option. And I am working to see that Wisconsin also gets treated fairly, and that it is rewarded, not punished, for its efficient use of health care dollars. La Crosse has become a national example of how health care dollars can be used more efficiently. Recently, the Washington Post reported that if all hospital systems operated like those in La Crosse, patients around the country would receive better medical care that costs patients, insurers and the government less. The same is true across most other areas of our state, and it’s something Wisconsin should be applauded for. That’s why one of my top priorities for health care reform legislation is to ensure states, hospitals and other Medicare providers are rewarded when they provide high-quality and efficient care. To move Congress toward this performance-based system, I led a bipartisan group of senators, including Sen. Herb Kohl, in asking the Senate Finance Committee — which is developing health reform legislation — to protect high-performing states like Wisconsin from unnecessary cuts to Medicare reimbursement. Many of the senators I work with on this issue come from largely rural states like Wisconsin; these states are being penalized for spending health care dollars wisely at a time when state budgets are already being squeezed. It’s time to start rewarding states that keep costs down. So I’m pleased to work with these senators, from both parties, to make sure that our states are treated fairly. As we make this shift to a system that distributes Medicare dollars based on performance, Congress and the Obama administration can learn a lot from Wisconsin’s leadership. Our state provides better care while spending about $1,200 less per patient than the national average. Wisconsin’s integrated Medicare system and aggressive quality controls provide Medicare beneficiaries better care for lower costs than most other states. Studies show that moving to a new system could save Medicare more than $100 billion a year. I support efforts in Congress to use high-performing health systems, many of which are in Wisconsin, as a model for all Medicare providers. President Barack Obama took the same approach when he said about high-performing health systems that “we need to learn from their successes and replicate those best practices across our country.” It was no mistake that he chose to come to Wisconsin to make that point last month. As the health care debate continues, I will continue to point to La Crosse and other areas of Wisconsin to demonstrate how health care reform can be done right. Our state is a model for how to keep costs down as we work to provide guaranteed health care coverage for all Americans.