A new universal health care plan being reworked by Wisconsin Senate Democrats may bring a significant influx of ailing people to Wisconsin, according to a study released by the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute on Friday.

“Expected Migration Impacts of the Healthy Wisconsin Program,” written by Richard Cebula and David Dodenhoff, reported about 142,000 people may flock to Wisconsin to take advantage of Healthy Wisconsin, a government-funded universal health care plan, if passed. This migration could add approximately $550 million more to the projected cost of the program.

Senate Democrats introduced the Healthy Wisconsin bill in 2007, but Assembly Republicans shot it down. The previous Healthy Wisconsin proposal would have provided universal health care for permanent state residents and would have necessitated a 14 to 16 percent payroll tax for funding.

Dodenhoff said the state does not have the budget to support the Healthy Wisconsin plan of 2007. He added this plan could draw normally uninsurable people with serious, long-term illnesses to the state, and these people could drive up the estimated costs of the plan even further. “Ultimately [the Legislature] has two choices: either ration care … or pay for it by raising taxes even more than what the proponents of the plan are talking about,” Dodenhoff said.

Dodenhoff added Wisconsin would be the first state to pass such a health care bill.

Massachusetts passed a law in 2006 requiring residents to purchase health insurance or face legal penalties, similar to current laws regarding auto insurance. Massachusetts, however, does not offer universal, government-managed health care like Wisconsin would if Healthy Wisconsin were to pass.

Sen. Fred Risser, D-Madison, said Healthy Wisconsin would be a positive plan for the state, with the benefits of having healthier citizens in the workforce outweigh the costs of insuring them.

“Anything that adds to the health of the citizenry is beneficial,” Risser said. “I think it is a fallacy to claim that there is an economic disadvantage because any time you develop a healthier citizenry, it is an economic advantage.”

Risser added Healthy Wisconsin is still being reworked and there may be other ideas presented at the state and national level which may better help Wisconsin take care of its citizens.

Jim Bender, spokesperson for Sen. Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, said Healthy Wisconsin would present the state with many problems, the biggest being the resulting cost to enforce it, as the potential payroll tax increase would be the largest in the history of the country.

“It basically blows up our current health care system; it wipes out all private contracts between all doctors and clinics and hospitals, and restructures everything under government,” Bender said. “That is something Republicans are philosophically opposed to.”

Bender added there are also various gray areas in the coverage, as some people may live in Illinois and work in Wisconsin, which would create complications.

Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker, D-Weston, and Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee, are presently revising the bill in preparation for reintroducing it to the Senate, and could not be reached for comment.