One of the most sweeping health care proposals came out of the Wisconsin State Senate last month. The health plan, dubbed Healthy Wisconsin, was dropped into the Senate version of the budget at the last possible minute. It was done quickly and surgically with no public input and almost no debate.

Not surprisingly, Healthy Wisconsin is just the prescription that Michael Moore would offer to fix the health care system. It is funded by a 14.5 percent payroll tax – 10.5 percent on the employer and 4 percent on the worker. In all, the plan would require $15.2 billion – more than the entire state budget. It creates a large new government agency, complete with a politically appointed board to determine just how the $15.2 billion would be spent.

Although the plan is fraught with problems, every left-leaning group in Wisconsin is out drumming up support for the plan. There at the head of the drum corps is the leadership of Wisconsin labor groups. But why would they take on this issue? Don’t they have their hands full given that they are struggling for members as they see jobs flowing out of Wisconsin and illegal workers flowing in?

Why does labor need to take on health care? After all, don’t union members tend to have good health care coverage? Why would they want to push a plan that holds the prospect of trimming benefits? More important, why would they want to subject their members to a 4 percent payroll tax?

The answer lies in the fine print of the Senate plan. The AFL-CIO is telling their members the truth. First of all, the contracts they now have that cover health insurance would remain. But even when those contracts expire their members would see little change. On paper their members would come under the umbrella of Healthy Wisconsin, including the benefit package. But, as the AFL-CIO points out, they see Healthy Wisconsin as a floor, not a ceiling. Unions can and will bargain for better benefits for their members and they can have management pick up all of the employee costs.

So for labor, Healthy Wisconsin is that bold new health plan that really does not apply to them. Now I’m beginning to understand why labor is pushing the bold new health plan. It really doesn’t apply to them. It’s for the rest of Wisconsin, all of us that aren’t members of organized labor. Ah, you’ve gotta love that fine print.