Neenah - Consumer-driven health care is gathering momentum around the state, led by companies in the Fox River Valley.

A recent forum staged by Associated Financial Group was attended by several hundred business people interested in marketplace reform of medical hyperinflation that is as far away as possible from government solutions like the single-payer systems advocated by some groups.

Fox Valley companies that have adopted consumer-driven plans - essentially, high deductibles and co-insurance combined with some form of a medical savings account - include Ariens, Associated Bank, KI, Banta, Menasha Corp. and Faith Technologies.

Stora Enso of Wisconsin Rapids went consumer-driven for its non-union employees and is negotiating with its unions for a similar approach.

The case for marketplace solutions over a national health system was made at the forum by Sally Pipes, a conservative Canadian economist who heads the Pacific Research Institute in San Francisco. Some of her indictment of Canadian health care:

• Canada has a severe shortage of diagnostic machines, ranking 16th in computed tomography scanners and 20th for magnetic resonance imaging devices. Pipes' elderly mom couldn't get an MRI and had to wait six months for a CT scan.
• Waiting times for a referral from a general practitioner to non-urgent treatment by a specialist can be 18 weeks. Pipes' mom had to wait one year to see an orthopedic surgeon about her knee and then another year for a replacement. Then it wasn't the titanium prosthesis she wanted.
• If he were Canadian, President Clinton's wait for bypass surgery would have been six weeks, instead of the four days he enjoyed in the states.
• "Illegal" private clinics are popping up all over Canada to fill gaps in the country's rationed treatment. The prime minister uses one in Montreal, Pipes asserts.
• Some 250 Canadian doctors head to the U.S. each year.
• Canadians routinely cross the U.S. border for timely and effective health care and pay out of pocket, including top politicians.

"The Canadian health care system is that of a Third World country," Pipes said.

Pipes urged acceleration of marketplace reforms. She reported that health savings account plans are booming, up from 440,000 last fall in their inaugural year to more than a million now. And more than 30% of the HSAs are being sold to people previously uninsured, she said.

"If we do not succeed in empowering consumers, single-payer health care will come to America."

She said the urgent timetable for getting a marketplace established is four years - the prelude to the next presidential election.

But advocates of governmental solutions persist.

The Wisconsin AFL-CIO has not found much traction for its single-payer plan that would cover all employed people, but the plan is still a live proposal.

And Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) introduced a curious bill that would essentially mandate coverage to 95% of Americans within 10 years.

The senator, who has been in office 12 years, accurately points out the negative health cost trends during his tenure and reports on the complaints he hears. Feingold's bill demands congressional debate, but offers no fiscal note or method of reform.

If he wants to see real reform, a trip to the Fox Valley would be instructive.