Providing health care coverage for everyone is an economic as well as moral imperative, a panel of health care professionals argued Friday in a seminar sponsored by Deloitte, the national financial consulting and auditing firm.

Tommy Thompson, the onetime Wisconsin governor and former U.S. health and human services secretary, led the discussion. He said the economic future of the United States depends on creating a health care system that controls costs by ensuring everyone has care to keep them healthy.

Thompson said domestic health care spending by U.S. employers is at $2 trillion a year and will double to $4 trillion, or 21 percent of gross domestic product, by 2014.

"Companies can't compete on a level playing field [in the world economy] if that happens," Thompson said.

There currently are 47 million uninsured Americans, or about 16 percent of the population. Minnesota has 385,000 residents without health insurance, or 7.4 percent of the population.

Colleen Reitan, president of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, said universal insurance coverage is not sustainable until the entire system is reformed to control costs. She said Minnesotans and residents of other Upper Midwest states are penalized by a Medicare system that funnels more money into high-cost states at the expense of low-cost states.

"We're under-compensated by Medicare," Reitan said, noting that state employers pay 11 percent more in federal payroll taxes than is returned here in Medicare payments.

The consumer role

Incentives are needed to make consumers conscious of value and quality, said Tom Forsythe, the vice president of corporate communications for General Mills Inc. That goes hand in hand with universal coverage, he said.

At General Mills, its 40,000 employees can enroll in wellness programs and fitness centers. Smokers pay higher premiums.

"We've been managing health care in every way possible for the last 20 years," Forsythe said. "Our costs are not terrible. Over the last five years we've held them close to the rate of inflation. But we feel a change coming, and it concerns us."

The Deloitte Center for Health Solutions has developed a $70 billion plan to provide universal coverage. Under the basic plan, the federal government would pay $24 billion a year and individuals would cover the remainder through premiums and out-of-pocket expenses. The monthly premium would be $177 a month, with individuals paying $94 of that.

Paul Keckley, director of the Deloitte center, called the cost of treating the uninsured when they show up in emergency rooms "a hidden tax" that is built into every premium paid by insured workers.

"The consequence of doing nothing is poor public policy and, in my opinion, unethical," said Dr. Michael Belzer, chief medical officer at Hennepin County Medical Center, the state's largest safety-net hospital.

David Phelps • 612-673-7269 • dphelps@startribune.com