Dunn County referendum asks federal government to nationalize health care

By Audrey Korte
La Crosse (Wisc.) Tribune, August 12, 2022

Last year, 55-year-old Merrill Grimes of Menomonie got a $971 bill for an ambulance ride. He was astounded.

“I worked my whole life. I got insurance,” he said. “I couldn’t believe that I rode an ambulance one time, and it cost nearly 1,000 bucks. My question is, why? I mean, why?”

Luckily, Grimes was OK. He had high blood pressure, he said.

“I was good. I’m on meds now. But that trip, and time in the ER, cost a pretty penny. Thousands of dollars,” he said. “I’m on a payment plan. But really? It was 19 miles. Why did it cost so much?”

His girlfriend, who asked that her name be withheld, said: “We thought we were doing the right thing, you know? We called 911. Then we got the bill and, forgive my French, but goddamn it was expensive.”

In November, Dunn County voters will have the opportunity to show support for a potential solution to problems like these.

Last month the legislative committee of Dunn County approved a referendum question that is unprecedented in rural America. It asks Congress and the president to nationalize health care.

Generally, attempts such as these come from large, urban areas. They may come with a left-leaning agenda.

But in Dunn County, it is quite the opposite. This referendum is the result of dozens of locals working together, year after year. They don’t care if you are blue or red or opaque. They just want you to have some say in whether you have good, reliable health care.

Their goal is to let the public decide if the federal government should cover health care costs for all, rather than just Medicare and Medicaid.

That’s it.

That’s the issue up for debate at this moment.

Here’s where it gets unusual. Legislators in the county voted unanimously to add this question to the November ballot. Some of them are incredibly conservative, politically speaking. Others lean in the opposite direction.

And yet, every legislative member voted to allow this question to go to referendum.

The goal, officials say, is to make sure that Americans are heard; that residents have a chance to give their opinion about health care in the United States.

“You know, people are going to see that it’s on the ballot, and they’re going to start asking questions. What does it mean for the federal government to have universal health care?” said Monica Berrier, a Dunn County supervisor.

But why does this matter?

If the referendum passes, that won’t immediately affect national policy. However, it is saying that residents of Dunn County want new, national health care options.

And there are other counties in the state of Wisconsin that are looking to add this referendum — with the same wording and sentiment — to their ballot for the spring of 2023. This includes Douglas and Ashland counties.

“So, if it’s just Dunn County, I don’t see it having that much of a direct impact,” Berrier said. “However, what I hope is that this discussion in Dunn County will inspire other counties to do the same. And I think that if other counties across Wisconsin, and even into other states start doing that, I think that the federal legislators are really going to have to start to pay attention.”

But for now, it is a waiting game.

“I think it’s really exciting that Dunn County is breaking ground here and being the first county in the state to do this,” said Berrier. “And I think it’s really important for us, and the local government, to give the people a voice on national issues as much as we can.”

Berrier, who was elected to the County Board of Supervisors in April and represents District 13, spoke in the public comments during the July meeting, which focused on whether the county would put a question to referendum. That’s more than a little unusual — to speak in the public comments on an issue as a citizen, when a microphone is available to you to say your piece as an elected official.

But that’s what Berrier did.

“I’m the county supervisor for District 13. So, like the others, I’m speaking today, regarding the referendum for national health care,” she said in July. “A question has come up about whether this is really county business, and I want to make the argument that it really is in the county’s interest to be advocating for a better health care system.”

Berrier said she wanted to make the argument that this should be a referendum question through the perspectives of budget and whether the current system is a responsible use of taxpayer dollars.

“So, when I first started looking into this, I looked at the numbers from the meeting packets from the committee and administration for the past three months. And, what I found was that the county had spent around $500,000 each month on health insurance, for the past three months,” she said. “And, when I first saw this, I thought that’s got to be some mistake, right? I must have misunderstood something.”

Berrier said she pulled up the one-page 2022 budget summary for the county, which is a public document available to all.

“In 2022, we’ve budgeted at, or around, $10 million per year for health insurance, and that’s out of a $90 million budget total,” she said. “That’s not just personnel, that’s all county operations. So $10 million out of $90 million, or about 10%, of all county operations goes to health insurance. So we’re spending a lot. But when we compare that to what the employees are actually getting, it’s a pretty bad deal.”

In June, Dunn County expenditures for health insurance totaled $423,115.41.

Berrier said that Dunn County is part of a system where delays and denials of care are routine.

“I don’t know how anybody can look at this and think that this is a good situation. But it’s the system that we’re stuck with,” she said. “I believe that as elected officials, and stewards of taxpayer dollars, we have a responsibility to demand better from the federal government that serves us.”

Over two meetings last month, more than 50 people from Dunn County spoke in favor of the referendum. From farmers to truck drivers to retired physicians, the sentiment was the same: “Please let this go to referendum.”

“I have been canvassing in Dunn County this spring,” said Dr. Lorene Vedder, a retired internal medicine physician. “It is almost universal that our fellow constituents believe that everyone should have access to health care, even those unable to pay for it.”

Then she added: “I have a question for the audience. Will everyone here in favor of a referendum for universal health care, publicly financed and nonprofit, be on our ballot in Dunn County, in November. Would you please stand up?”

More than two dozen residents of Dunn County stood up.

John Calabrese, the supervisor for District 14, said he thinks the language of the referendum helped move things along. It was something that people could get behind, he said.

“What’s really interesting about the language here is that the referendum question was hoping to avoid the landmines,” he said, “the terms that are used regarding, a national health insurance program, terms such as ‘Medicare for all’ or ‘single-payer health care.’”

And so in November, Dunn County residents have the opportunity to add their voice to the national conversation about health care through the referendum.

“I know that Dunn County is largely rural, and often voted conservative, but I can say from my time on the board that we don’t talk about left versus right,” Calabrese said. “This is our way of trying to show what we in rural America can accomplish by working together.”

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