Gov. Jim Doyle announced Wednesday the creation of an Office of Health Care Reform that will be used to integrate national health care reforms into the Wisconsin health care system, ensuring all residents and businesses have access to reform benefits and information.

The new office, which was created by executive order of the governor, will be co-led by the Secretary of Health Services and the Commissioner of Insurance.

Wisconsin is already seen by many as at the forefront of health care with programs such as BadgerCare Plus and SeniorCare, a position Doyle said will allow for easier implementation of federal reforms in the state.

“Because of the work the state has done over the last seven years to build out our health care system, Wisconsin is ideally situated to implement reform,” Doyle said in a statement. “And when national reform is fully implemented, the rest of the country will look like Wisconsin does today.”

However, there are still hundreds of thousands of Wisconsinites in need of better coverage, said Seth Boffeli, spokesperson for the Department of Health Services.

“Our charge from the governor is to get the state prepared for the big changes coming in 2014, but also to do everything we can to take advantage of the changes that are happening right now, as well as to make sure the state as a whole has access to accurate and easy-to-understand information,” Boffeli said.

Supporters see the creation of the new office as evidence that Doyle is committed to putting federal reforms into practice in Wisconsin.

“One of the things that we know about the health care reform law is that the states are going to have a lot of flexibility in implementing the changes passed by the president and Congress,” said Nicole Safar, a legal and policy analyst with Planned Parenthood Wisconsin. “We are really excited that Governor Doyle has been so proactive in implementing health care reform, as far as the new office being out there just a few weeks after the bill was passed.”

Meanwhile, groups such as Wisconsin Right to Life remain wary of how reform implementation will impact state policy.

“They want to implement the federal program here in the state of Wisconsin, but in doing so we are going to make sure that they do not use state tax dollars to fund abortions as they did on the federal level,” said Susan Armacost, legislative director for Wisconsin Right to Lif .

President Barack Obama issued an executive order in March that federal funds are not to be used for abortion services.

The national health care reforms that were signed into law March 23 would, among other things, prohibit health insurance companies from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions, allow dependents to stay on their parents’ insurance until they are 26 years old and provide tax credits for small businesses that help pay for health insurance for employees.