Wisconsin Builder - The A List - Construction Corner

Construction Corner

Maintaining a healthy outlook for Wisconsin

By Mike Fabishak

Mike Fabishak has been the executive vice president of the Associated General Contractors of Greater Milwaukee Inc. for the past five years and serves on several boards and councils where he advocates for the construction industry.

Health-care costs are on the top of almost everyone's mind in business today. Premiums for health-care coverage have been increasing by 20 percent to 30 percent and more per year. Employers and employees alike are spending more time and resources to help bring down to some reasonable levels these costs to businesses and the out-of-pocket expenses for our workers.

Attempts are also being made to apply advanced technology to make sure the dynamic of diagnosing and providing the most appropriate patient care is close to 100 percent. A recent Rand study stated that patients are only getting the most appropriate care about 55 percent of the time.

As we turn our attention to the health-cost and health-care crunch, some members of the Wisconsin Legislature are putting this issue on the front burner this fall session. We hope they do not become shortsighted, particularly as it affects construction.

Our concern is that all of us in the construction industry work together to ensure that the rehabilitation of old, inefficient and outdated medical buildings, as well as the construction of new medical facilities, in the state is not unfairly targeted as part of any legislative cost-containment effort related to curbing the increasing cost of health insurance.

The Wisconsin Hospital Association's president, Steve Brenton, has said the building portion of Wisconsin hospitals amounts to only 6 percent of the total of their expenses. He further added that many of the facilities that are being constructed or updated today are to house new technology or replace older, less efficient buildings.

Putting this all in perspective, any restrictions on construction of medical buildings would not be in the best interest of either patients or the state economy.

First, there are no verifiable statistics to suggest that hospital construction has been a significant contributor to the recent increases in health-care costs. In fact, it has been quite to the contrary. More important, however, hospital construction has been one of the few rays of sunshine in what has been characterized as an extraordinarily anemic construction economy.

As we all know, tax revenue, especially income-tax revenue, is down substantially from previous years, resulting in one of the largest state deficits this state has ever seen. Appreciating that fiscal reality, restrictions in hospital construction would further worsen the state's budget crisis.

The thousands of men and women who are employed by the construction industry add enormously to the state's commerce and economic base. Averaging wage and benefit packages of between $30 and $40 per hour, this industry pulls its weight when it comes to generating tax revenue for the state economy.

Most important, the health-care business in Wisconsin needs, and consumers expect, easily accessible, state-of-the-art medical care that is delivered in efficient and productive facilities. As such, any effort on the part of some individuals in the legislative community to limit health-care construction could severely compromise quality health care while unintentionally dampening economic growth.

The rising cost of health care has to be examined in a comprehensive manner where everything is on the table. Isolating it to hospital construction is a dangerous notion that would have no demonstrable effect on health-care costs.