Obamacare critics want tougher insurance mandate — for drivers

Madison — Two Republican lawmakers who want the repeal of Obamacare are pressing to strengthen another government insurance mandate passed in Wisconsin around the same time — this one on drivers.

As the Assembly Health Committee chairman, Rep. Joe Sanfelippo (R-West Allis) will help Wisconsin implement a repeal of the Affordable Care Act, the federal health law that mandates Americans buy health coverage or face financial penalties. Sanfelippo sees the law as an unwarranted government intrusion into private markets.

But Sanfelippo and fellow Obamacare critic Sen. Chris Kapenga (R-Delafield) are pushing their own bill to increase the financial penalties on drivers who don't buy automobile coverage under a state mandate approved in the summer of 2009, less than a year before Obamacare.

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To Justin Sydnor, a University of Wisconsin-Madison economist who studies insurance and individual behavior, the two measures represent a chance to put politics aside and think about what really happens when the government requires consumers to buy insurance.

"It would be wrong to say that these two mandates are exactly the same, and it would also be wrong to say that there's no similarity between them," Sydnor said. "You can come up with some ways where these mandates feel pretty similar and ... ways they're not."

Both laws involve a requirement by the government that consumers act responsibly and buy insurance to ensure that other people don't end up paying when someone gets sick or hurt or their car gets damaged.

Sanfelippo, a conservative whose father founded and brother runs a taxicab business, sees a difference between the two mandates. People running errands or traveling to work may have other options besides driving, and being struck by an uninsured motorist can have devastating costs for accident victims.

The unpaid emergency room costs of an uninsured person with a heart attack and no money might be equally great, but Sanfelippo pointed out those are spread across the hospital's entire customer base of patients and insurers.

"I just don't equate automobile coverage to exercise my privilege to drive with a mandate to purchase health coverage," Sanfelippo said.

The idea of mandating the purchase of health coverage came out of conservative think tanks decades ago, but in recent years it's been sharply opposed by Republican opponents of Obamacare as a threat to individual liberty. Sanfelippo has been among the law's critics and in 2012 Kapenga went on the record supporting an unsuccessful state proposal to arrest any federal official who tried to implement Obamacare here.

"You're better off when the government stays out of the market and lets the private sector try to come up with solutions," Sanfelippo said in a June interview with the public affairs network WisconsinEye.

For years, Wisconsin was the only state besides New Hampshire to not require drivers to purchase liability coverage to cover cases where they harm another car or driver. The Wisconsin Insurance Alliance traditionally opposed the auto coverage mandate because of the concern it would bring more government intrusion that might affect rates for auto insurance here, which are among the nation's lowest.

Then-Gov. Jim Doyle and his fellow Democrats in the Legislature approved the auto insurance mandate along with higher minimum coverage levels in the summer of 2009.

Conservatives like the group American Federation of Children criticized those measures the next year, and in 2011 newly elected Gov. Scott Walker and GOP lawmakers repealed the higher coverage minimums but left the insurance mandate in place.

About 12% of Wisconsin drivers don't have insurance, slightly better than the national average, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

But right now, many uninsured drivers stopped by police only get cited for not carrying proof of insurance with them and may get no fine or one well below $100, Sanfelippo said. As with health coverage, the uninsured can drive up rates for responsible consumers whose insurers end up paying for either extra visits to the emergency room or auto body shop.

"People are making the determination that rather than spending $600 or $700 a year for insurance, I'll just risk it," Sanfelippo said of auto coverage.

Sanfelippo's proposal would require all drivers to show police or a court that they have insurance to avoid fines and put in place a monitoring system for drivers who don't. The first offense would be a $100 fine with some new surcharges, the second would be $250 to $750, and the third and after would be $250 to $2,500, with up to $2,500 fines for uninsured drivers who seriously injure someone and up to $7,500 for drivers who kill someone.

The state insurers' lobby worked with Sanfelippo to make changes to the legislation.

"If Representative Sanfelippo's legislation provides a greater incentive for insurance and fairness to the system, we are supportive of that," alliance president Andy Franken said.