Two state legislators unveiled their "Wisconsin Health Security Act" Thursday in a press conference at the State Capitol.

The legislation, if passed, would mandate the use of state funds to create a health care system, which would cover medical costs for every resident in Wisconsin.

State Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, and Rep. Chuck Benedict, D-Beloit, authored the health-care reform bill with the support of 14 other state legislators.

"The Wisconsin Health Security Act assures health care for every man, woman and child in Wisconsin," Miller said. "It doesn't matter if you are rich or poor, healthy or sick, black or white, married or single, male or female, gay or straight, young or old, employed or unemployed."

Under the bill, by July 1, 2008, the state would have to establish a medical plan granting all residents in the state access to health care. The plan would also create a Department of Health Planning and Finance, which would serve as the main administrative agency for the health care system, if passed.

"As a physician, I am appalled at what's been happening today in the health care system," Benedict said. "Administrative costs and record pharmaceutical profits are taking the place of actually helping patients and families."

The flux in the cost of health care is due, in major part, to the increase in administrators in the medical care industry, Miller and Benedict said. In addition, 45 million Americans are without health insurance, including 590,000 in Wisconsin, the legislators said.

Miller added 25 percent of the uninsured in the state are children and 50 percent are employed but do not receive benefits.

"High out-of-pocket expenses for the uninsured and the underinsured pose an even bigger problem — medical debt, which is threatening the financial security of Wisconsin families," Miller said. According to information provided at the event, medical debt caused 53 percent of bankruptcies in 2001.

"Our current system of paying for health care is disintegrating before our very eyes," Miller said. "Health-care costs are increasing at double-digit rates."

Americans pay double for health care compared to what citizens of other industrialized nations do, Miller said, a problem he hopes can be remedied by the Health Security Act.

Importantly, Miller added, the bill would ensure the state's farmers and other small business owners have access to health care, which is currently limited for many or forces them to seek outside employment to obtain health insurance.

However, there is opposition to the bill in the state Legislature.

"The state government should not be funding health care," Mike Prentiss, a spokesman for state Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, said. "We feel the best way to make health care more affordable and more accessible to more people in Wisconsin is to give more control to individual consumers and individual patients."

Even though some feel universal health care in the state would be unfeasible, Meghan Pesko, a second-year University of Wisconsin Medical School student, said the legislation would help physicians in the state do a better job because they could treat all people, not just the insured.

"Our Wisconsin state government has always been instrumental in drafting legislation that increases the quality of life for its citizens," Pesko said. "Let's find a universal health care plan that works for Wisconsin."