Wis. Governor Creates Health Care Council

Wis. Governor Jim Doyle created a panel Wednesday to study how more people can get health insurance and how businesses can cut their health care costs.

Doyle will direct the 18-member Healthy Wisconsin Council to figure out how to cut the number of uninsured state residents in half by 2010 and how to reduce businesses’ health care premiums by 30 percent.

The council also must develop a plan identifying ways to increase the number of businesses that offer affordable health insurance.

The panel, appointed by Doyle, must submit its plans to the governor by Dec. 1. Doyle created the council by executive order.

David Kindig, emeritus professor of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison medical school, and Michael Weiden, an attorney who deals with health law, will lead the council, the governor said in a statement.