If by some strange fluke Healthy Wisconsin actually becomes law, I thought I'd give all of you a preview of what will happen in the weeks and months prior to that law taking effect.  The first thing that will happen is that you'll see a moving van being packed up with my stuff to take it to another state.  The second thing that will occur is that companies all around the state will call company wide meetings to discuss the impact of Healthy Wisconsin on their employees.  I wonder if it's possible to calculate the dollar cost associated with the lost productivity of one and two hour HR meetings all happening with a span of one month.  This will be a very busy time for Human Resources personnel.  Anyway, across the state the following will happen.

Human Resources personnel will busy themselves calculating your current "total benefits package" that you get from the company pre-Healthy Wisconsin.  You've probably seen this before.  It's a sheet of paper that has a dollar amount representing your "total benefits package" on it, but somehow that number is significantly higher than what you actually get paid, or what you consider your actual salary.  Then there is a pie chart near the bottom that shows how much of that total benefits package is divided among various benefits.  The majority of it is in your salary of course, followed by various amounts representing your company's contribution to things like your current health insurance plan, any life insurance benefit you might receive, as well as any 401k contributions that you company makes on your behalf.

Remember that number, because post-Healthy Wisconsin it won't change.  However, the breakdown on that pie chart most certainly will.  Your company will have to figure out how much of their new payroll tax is attributed to each employee, and replace the current company contribution to your health insurance with that new number.  How exactly that number gets determined will be a very large point of contention I'm sure.  But if it's larger, then that will eat into the "salary" wedge of the pie chart.  In other words, you'll be getting a pay cut.

Meetings will be held all across the state where everyone will get a folder with those two pieces of paper, followed by a lengthy explanation by a Human Resources representative explaining how your salary is not actually getting cut, but simply redistributed to pay for your new, and much improved (*cough*) health insurance plan.  Because remember, "your total benefits package remains the same".  I'm sure that before that meeting, many HR representatives will practice saying that line over and over again in front of a meeting.  "Your total benefits package remains the same.  Your total benefits package remains the same."  Angry questions and accusations will be thrown at these poor HR representatives as employees look at what they will only see as a pay cut, and then these poor HR people will go home and get drunk, or pray to God thanking him that they made it out of that meeting alive.

So if you have any friends who work in the Human Resources field... buy them a bottle of something good if Healthy Wisconsin is passed.  They're going to need it.