Hospital tax cheerleader

You'd think with something as extensive and costly as a hospital tax, Democrats wouldn't be too quick to rally around Doyle.

I thought so, and I was wrong.

The Senate co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee is gung-ho to jack up the costs of health care.

Senator Russ Decker (D-Weston) applauded Governor Doyle for considering an assessment on hospitals to help fund the cost of Medical Assistance programs in Wisconsin. He noted that the latest report on hospital profits makes the contribution of hospitals all the more necessary.

“Hospitals are always asking for higher reimbursement rates for Medical Assistance programs. This idea has the potential to generate hundreds of millions of additional federal dollars for our state and the hospitals are criticizing it before they’ve even seen a plan,” said Decker.

“The only way we are going to be able to make sure we can get adequate health care coverage is if everyone shares the responsibility to make it work. Consumers are already shouldering their share of the burden by paying nearly $4,000 a day to stay in the hospital. After raking in over $1 billion in profits, the least nonprofits hospitals can do is pay their fair share for the medical assistance program,” said Decker.

Except, of course, they won't, and those poor consumers Decker pretends to be so concerned about will shoulder even more costs. He knows that, though. He knows full well who will pay for the tax. He just doesn't care.