Stone, Abele offer proposals on health care savings for county

Reforming health care for Milwaukee County employees with an emphasis on wellness could yield huge savings to help balance the county's budget, state Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale) said Tuesday. Stone, a candidate for county executive in the April 5 election, said a health care overhaul modeled after an in-house medical plan at a large local employer could provide "savings in the tens of millions of dollars." Meanwhile, Stone's Democratic opponent, philanthropist Chris Abele, announced his own plan Tuesday to leverage health care savings by putting all state and local public employees into the same buying pool, a move he said would result in unspecified lower costs. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 3/16)