A majority of Wisconsin residents find problems with the current Wisconsin health care system, according to a Tuesday poll.
The recent University of Wisconsin Survey Center poll said approximately 45 percent of Wisconsin residents feel the current health care system has major problems, and 7 percent said it is in a state of crisis.
In addition, 76 percent of those polled favored expanding current Wisconsin government health care programs, and 61 percent favored a new system administered solely by the government.
Support for government-run health care has increased from 51 percent in December of 2007, the poll said.
UW-Madison political science professor Katherine Cramer Walsh, who worked on the poll, said the change from December to April in support of a government-run health care system is statistically small, yet does represent a slight change in public opinion.
She also said the current presidential primary and economic worries might have played a role in the change over the short period of time.
Former Executive Director of University Health Services Kathleen Poi said changes in Wisconsin health care systems are necessary for providing insurance to those who cannot afford it.
It's shocking in this country, the number of people, working people. It's not that these are people who are unemployed, but working people who can't afford health insurance,"" Poi said.
State Senate Democrats proposed a large-scale health care reform bill in the previous session, but opposition from Assembly Republicans stalled it in the Legislature.
Jim Bender, spokesperson for state Assembly Majority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, said recently passed Republican bills benefit Wisconsin through using market forces in the health care system.
He said this gives individuals more control over their health care.
""We passed bills this last session dealing with health care transparency and enforcing some market forces into the health care system which will give individual policy holders, not government and not insurance companies, more control over their health care,"" Bender said.
