Wisconsin residents need healthcare relief now – especially on the heels of major hospital closures in Western Wisconsin. We can’t wait for a sweeping bill when people are struggling to have check-ups covered and to pay for monthly prescriptions. As a small business owner who relies on the exchange for my healthcare coverage, I know firsthand the limitations of our current system. Here’s how I think we start to fix it:

• Expand Medicare to cover vision, dental and hearing – the very things that deteriorate as we age.
• Address antitrust issues in the healthcare system that put the power in a few major corporations and provide consumers with little choice.
• Take on prescription drug companies, ensuring Seniors can get the drugs they need at prices negotiated through Medicare and that drug companies can’t inflate their prices based on brand or speciality of the drug.
• Work to improve the Affordable Care Act and healthcare exchange as it exists by providing more tax credits to lower premiums, creating more options on the exchange and simplifying the process to make obtaining health insurance less confusing.
• Annually lower the age that Seniors can start receiving Medicare benefits – each year expanding the number of Americans covered by Medicare.
• Increase the Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates for hospitals so we can continue providing critical care in our rural communities.

People’s pocketbooks are hurting – prices have been rising at the gas pump and the grocery store. It can be tough to make your mortgage or rent payment and have enough money leftover for the essentials. Here’s how I intend to ease those burdens:

• Take on corporations that are price gouging consumers at the gas pump, and at the grocery store.
• Expansion of federal community block grants that offer dollars for affordable housing projects, particularly in rural communities in west central Wisconsin where current housing is aging out or doesn’t accommodate growing populations.
• Tax credits to organizations willing to build low-income and mixed-income housing projects throughout the region to address our lack of affordable housing.
• Help families buy their first home by deferring property tax payments for first-time home buyers for up to five years.
• A constituent-centered office with case workers on staff that are seasoned in working to address the issues of constituents. It’s also having a Chief of Staff based in the District, putting the needs of CD-3 first.
• Child care incubators that provide training and dollars to incentivize start-up in our small towns and rural communities.
• Increasing the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour – which is just the start for creating living wages in our state – with a rolling implementation plan starting with corporate players first, midsize businesses and then small businesses.

I grew up on a farm in Eau Claire that raised registered dairy cattle – Prairie Belle Holsteins. I lived at the fair each summer showing cows in 4-H throughout the region. My family has had a farm in this district for 150 years so when we had to sell our cows because of the price of milk and competition with larger dairies, it wasn’t just losing a job or a business, but a part of our identity and way of life. My family now raises angus beef cattle. Here’s how I intend to protect our livelihood and the heritage of agriculture in this District:

• Address breakdowns within our supply chain – from the farmer to processors to the retailer.
• Ensure tax incentives and subsidies are created for small to midsize farms, not just for bigger ag. Our farmers, from dairy to beef to pork producers, are not getting their fair share.
• Enforce antitrust laws that are impacting the ability for farmers to compete with growing conglomerates. These corporate conglomerates are robbing us of our farming traditions.
• Restructure the Farm Bill with a greater focus on agriculture and the farming community itself versus the bulky package it has become.
• Incentivize formation of rural cooperatives that have a proven history of bridging the gap and ensure smaller farmers see a greater share of profit.
• Work closely and convene quarterly with key partners like UW-Extension, WEDC’s Office of Rural Prosperity, the Wisconsin Farmers Union and the Farm Bureau to remain tapped into the issues affecting the ag community within this region and to inform federal policy making.
• Provide federal funding to individuals looking to purchase vacant farmsteads to jumpstart our dairy industry and provide new training for folks who didn’t inherit land and skills, but want to learn and earn it.
• Expand export markets for all commodities.
• Continue to advocate for funding for important ag pipeline programs like 4-H and FFA within our school districts and counties.

When my mom had a heart attack, she needed quadruple bypass surgery and left the hospital with a six-figure  bill. If it wasn’t for Medicare, there’s no way our family could afford a bill like that. From the cost of critical care to prescription drugs to assisted living we can all agree we want our parents and grandparents to age with dignity. Here’s how I intend to support the people who raised us, our parents, grandparents, church moms and neighbors:

• Repeal the tax on Social Security for Seniors who are already receiving benefits.
• Scrap the cap on Social Security so that higher earners are paying their fair share and keeping the program solvent for all of us.
• Expand Medicare to include vision, dental and hearing coverage.
• Stand-up to pharmaceutical companies and their outrageous drug prices.
• Lower the cost-burden of long-term care facilities and predatory beneficiaries.
• Increase access to long-term care facilities in rural communities and provide tax incentives so Seniors can stay in the communities where their families live and that they’ve called home for decades.

As a college student, I relied on organizations like Planned Parenthood as my healthcare option for annual exams. I am a firm believer that every person should have the right to make the best decision for themselves about if, when, and how to start or grow a family, free from political or governmental interference. In Congress, I will always protect reproductive healthcare and the personal freedoms of all Wisconsinites. You can count on me to:

• Make decisions based on scientific evidence rather than politics.
• Unabashedly support the upholding of Roe vs. Wade.
• Ensure our two regional Planned Parenthoods in western Wisconsin remain open, federally funded and that Planned Parenthood locations nationwide remain federally supported.
• Advocate for ending the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits abortion coverage for individuals on Medicaid or Medicare.
• Support federal programs that improve and increase access to family planning services.