The Farmers’ Health Cooperative of Wisconsin (FHCW), organized in 2007 to improve the quality and affordability of health insurance for Wisconsin farmers and agribusinesses, celebrates its first anniversary this week.
The Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives (WFC) developed FHCW in collaboration with members of Congress, Governor Jim Doyle, Wisconsin state lawmakers, USDA Rural Development, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and several leading cooperative organizations.
Bill Oemichen, President & CEO of WFC, said the contributions by Wisconsin’s agricultural, health care and legislative leaders were instrumental in bringing the innovative idea to fruition. “We are particularly grateful for the efforts of U.S. Senator Herb Kohl and U.S. Representative Dave Obey who worked with the rest of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation to provide significant development funding, as well as the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health’s Partnership Fund for a Healthy Future which also awarded grant dollars for this ground-breaking initiative,” he said.
Today, FHCW is serving more than 2200 members, more than double the number WFC expected for the first year after the program’s April 2007 launch. “We have been extremely pleased with the steady and solid growth of the cooperative to date, and the fact that members come from all age groups and health backgrounds, including those who were previously uninsured,” said Oemichen. “We set out to improve access to health care for all farmers and agribusinesses, and FHCW has been successful in doing that.”
Other successes to date include:
- Surpassing year-end membership goals in less than three months,
- Expanding choice of doctors and specialists by adding Mayo Health System providers to the network,
- Keeping premium increases to a very low 7.9 percent for the majority of members (members who graduated into a higher five-year age band received a larger increase, a universal practice among health insurers.)
-Jeff Bennesch, a Colfax dairy farmer who chairs the FHCW Board of Directors, said FHCW has also improved the quality of health insurance coverage and choices compared with what was previously available to farmers. The cooperative offers six plans with deductibles ranging from $300 to $5000, including two HSA-compatible plans. All offer coverage for work-related injuries, the first $500 of preventive care and all state-mandated benefits including maternity coverage. The plan also offers a $2,000 per-member per-event accident policy included in the premium as well as coverage for dependent children up to age 25 whether or not they are enrolled in school.
“Our coverage is designed for farmers, by farmers,” Bennesch said, “I was not able to purchase this kind of high-quality health insurance before FHCW was created.”
Oemichen said the FHCW is the only organization of its kind in the nation, and he has fielded numerous phone calls from other states inquiring about the program’s success. “I tell them all the same thing: putting the FHCW together has been a lot of work, but knowing that together we’ve done something positive to help address the health insurance crisis facing farm families and agribusinesses has made all of the work worthwhile.”
For more information about the Farmers’ Health Cooperative of Wisconsin, visit www.farmershealthcooperative.com or call 1-800-539-9370.
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