Issue Position: Healthcare

Issue Position

In a bipartisan effort to give hope to Wisconsin families dealing with addiction, I proudly voted in favor of a package of bills that would provide more tools to fight Wisconsin's opioid and heroin epidemic, and provide more help to those in our state suffering from opioid addiction. The legislature began the H.O.P.E. (Heroin, Opiate Prevention and Education) Agenda in 2013 to combat the devastating opioid problem in our state through increased prevention and treatment methods. Over the last several years, we have continued to focus on this initiative to focus on identifying, treating, and preventing the opioid crisis in Wisconsin. This initiative included an expansion of the T.A.D. (Treatment and Diversion) program, which gives victims of the opioid epidemic the opportunity to rehabilitate and recover. As Chairman of the Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety, I successfully passed this expansion out of committee and it went on to be signed into law. I will continue to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to fight opioid abuse and addiction in Wisconsin and make our citizens safer.

This session I also supported a budget that helped to protect our state's most vulnerable populations with investments to increase access to and improve long-term care services, personal care, dementia care specialists, and Family Care. We also increased payments to Disproportionate Share Hospitals, which are those that serve a significantly disproportionate number of low-income patients.

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