new report<\/a> from the University of Wisconsin-Madison\u2019s Center for Research on the Wisconsin Economy found health care costs in the state have risen far faster than wages.\u00a0<\/p>\nAnanth Seshadri, center director and co-author of the report, said increasing costs hurt Wisconsin\u2019s economic competitiveness because insurance is often tied to employment.<\/p>\n
\u201cRising health care costs are effectively a pay cut for workers and a tax on employers,\u201d Seshadri said in an email. \u201cFamilies are paying more in premiums and deductibles, while wages are suppressed. For employers, these costs are forcing real tradeoffs \u2014 cutting hiring, reducing investment, or raising prices.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report points to federal data that shows consumer prices for medical care services, which includes the cost of care and insurance, in the Midwest increased by 140 percent between 2000 and 2025. By comparison, the median household income in Wisconsin increased by around 83 percent during nearly the same period.<\/p>\n
Consolidation leading to higher hospital prices<\/p>\n
Seshadri said high hospital prices are the main driver of cost increases hitting consumers and their employers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWisconsin hospitals have significant market power, and in many regions there\u2019s limited competition,\u201d he said in an email. \u201cThat allows dominant systems to negotiate much higher prices with insurers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bobby Peterson, attorney and executive director of public interest law firm ABC for Health, said large-scale health care payers like the federal Medicare program have the ability to tell hospitals what they\u2019re willing to pay. But he said that isn\u2019t the case for most employer-sponsored insurance plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to think about ways of combining those risk puddles into big pools to help provide the leverage that (employers) need to help bend that cost curve down, bend those prices down,\u201d Peterson said.<\/p>\n
Some data indicates high hospital prices have hit Wisconsin harder than other states. The UW report cites a survey by the RAND corporation that found Wisconsin hospitals charge private insurers an average of 321 percent of Medicare rates.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the fourth highest rate in the country, according to the survey, and the highest in the Midwest. Seshadri\u2019s report points out that the hospital prices were voluntarily reported by employers, which could affect the accuracy of the RAND survey\u2019s comparisons.<\/p>\n
Wisconsin Hospital Association president and CEO Kyle O\u2019Brien pointed to this \u201cflawed\u201d data as one of the reasons to discount the UW report.<\/p>\n
The WHA declined WPR\u2019s request for an interview. But in the statement, O\u2019Brien said the paper fails to acknowledge the \u201cmassive amount\u201d of health care dollars that are absorbed by the insurance industry and \u201cnever make their way to a hospital or provider and leave patients to pay for their own care.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her work in business development, Binanti said she frequently hears from local employers about how the high cost for care is affecting their business.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithin the last two years, it\u2019s been an extremely big issue, to the point where there\u2019s great (workers) that are considering leaving their jobs because they can\u2019t afford medical coverage and they have to look elsewhere,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For people who have to buy insurance outside of their job, many have been affected by the end of the enhanced premium tax credits. <\/p>\n
The pandemic-era program, which expanded eligibility and the amount of assistance offered to folks to help pay for plans, expired at the end of last year. That was despite an effort by Democrats in Congress to renew the credits that led to the extended federal government shutdown last fall.<\/a><\/p>\nBinanti said the loss of the enhanced tax credits meant she had to choose a lower-tier plan when signing up on the marketplace at the end of last year. She carefully chose her plan because it was supposed to help cover her medications right away instead of after meeting her $11,000 deductible. But after she signed up, the plan reclassified her medications, pushing her to drop the coverage.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, she\u2019s not sure if she\u2019ll try to sign up on the marketplace again or consider a different option.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I\u2019ve been looking for other jobs because I need insurance at some point,\u201d she said. \u201cI can\u2019t be in limbo forever. I don\u2019t want to leave my career. I\u2019ve established a great working relationship. I work in community betterment, and so it would really suck to have to go to a corporate place, nine-to-five grind that just pays my health insurance. But it might become a need.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wisconsin Public Radio, \u00a9 Copyright 2026, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like most people with a chronic medical condition, Alexandria Binanti has frequent health care costs. She needs medication,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588036,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[101,97,252,253,3],"class_list":["post-588035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-economy","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}