Health Care Costs continue to be a (hidden) Problem

In 2005 the Racine Taxpayers Association, lead by then president Jayne Siler, had observed is that over the prior years, government had not been growing so much as it had been just getting more expensive.   Then County Executive Bill McReynolds indicated to the Association that the culprit was Health Care Costs.   The Taxpayers Association then did a series of studies on health care costs of the local taxing entities: Gateway, The City of Racine, the county and Racine Unified revealing the exorbitant government plans.   But that is as far as it went.   Nothing was ever done about these costs until this year when Scott Walker at least got government employees contributing to the extravaganza.

Since those studies, Health Savings Accounts have come upon the scene.   They have proven effective.   With salaries and fringes constituting 76% of the General Fund Budget, there may be room to save millions of dollars just in Health care costs.

It is time to investigate these plans and put them into use for government employees.