Healthcare

As a longtime member and former chair of the Senate Health Committee, I take healthcare policy extremely seriously. I believe that healthcare is a right, not a privilege, and I support policies that expand access to healthcare and make it more affordable, as well as workforce support to help end the shortages of doctors, nurses, and other critical personnel.

​

Everyone deserves the freedom to make their own healthcare decisions. I will work to repeal the pre-civil war law that criminalizes abortion with no exceptions for rape, incest, or the health of the mother, and I will fight to prevent any attempts to reduce access to contraceptives.

​

I have worked to provide more funding for paid family leave, and will find ways to support adoption through financial help and public resources for children without parents.

 

I served on the Governor’s Task Force on Prescription Drug Affordability. We recommended several changes that ended up in the Governor’s 2021-2023 budget request, including capping the out-of-pocket costs of insulin, increasing price transparency at pharmacies, and creating a state office to assist in controlling the costs of prescription drugs.

 

I support expanding BadgerCare. Utilizing the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, an additional 90,000 Wisconsinites could have health insurance. Republicans in the legislature have allowed Wisconsinites’ federal tax dollars to go to pay for this program in 38 other states, but not here at home.

 

We must continue to make progress to remove lead and other toxins from our infrastructure and environment. Federal funds have helped spur new progress towards this goal, but we must do more at the state level to get lead out of our homes, schools, and workplaces.

​

This session I worked on policies to make the healthcare marketplace more navigable for healthcare providers so that they can more easily reach underserved areas. I was honored to receive the Wisconsin Primary Health Care Association’s State Grant Champion Award for my work in securing funding for our state’s Community Health Centers, like the Sixteenth Street Community Health Center here in our district.

 

I also sponsored legislation that would prevent insurance companies from choosing where patients can fill their prescriptions, and legislation that required pharmacy benefit managers to be licensed and regulated and removed a gag clause that prevented pharmacists from providing information to patients that would help them save money.