A fight is brewing over whether or not the Wisconsin Farm Bureau will support the proposed Wisconsin Health Plan.
The plan would allow Wisconsin businesses, including farms, to form a purchasing pool"" to reduce the cost of health insurance.
Assembly Speaker-elect Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, sent a letter Dec. 1 to an unknown number of Farm Bureau members outlining problems with the plan, including an unprecedented tax increase on small businesses and a multi-billion dollar budget shortfall.
""I urge you not to support the ‘Wisconsin Health Plan' until several serious questions about the plan can be answered,"" Huebsch said.
Former Republican state Sen. and Department of Family Services Secretary Joe Leean fired back on Thursday with a statement addressed to Huebsch claiming Huebsch's statements were ""at best misleading and at worst inaccurate,"" and that he misinterpreted a Legislative Fiscal Bureau memo about the plan's budget.
""It seems very strange you would try and derail a bi-partisan effort which has spent two years developing a proposal which would address an issue so important to our citizens,"" Leean said.
From June to December of last year, Leean chaired a task force of business leaders working to improve the plan.
Huebsch's office defends the letter as a necessary measure days before David Riemer, director of the Wisconsin Health Project, the organization who developed the plan, was to speak at the Farm Bureau's annual meeting.
""The reason we put that out there was we wanted to make sure the Farm Bureau folks did not get a one-sided presentation because they were hearing from one of the guys who created this plan and he's not a fair arbiter when it comes to these things '¦ We wanted to make sure that the farmers had as much information as possible before they made a decision on where they stand,"" said Bob Delaporte, communications director for Huebsch.
The Farm Bureau has not yet endorsed the plan and wants to keep an open mind in solving the industry's growing healthcare problems.
""This is a discussion we're going to have as the legislature convenes in January '¦ We plan to inform our members on all healthcare proposals this coming session."" Sabrina Gentile, director of governmental relations for the bureau said.
""This is what the debate's all about, to find out what's the best plan, and we're going to continue to be involved every step of the way,"" she said.
