Health Care Bills
Between the January and February floor sessions, the Assembly passed 9 bills related to health care.
SB264 known as Gail’s law was signed into law by the governor as 2025 Wisconsin Act 103. This law requires health insurers to provide additional diagnostic breast examinations and supplemental breast screening examinations for women with dense breast tissue.
SB214Â regulates registration of out-of-state health care providers to provide telehealth services in Wisconsin. The governor vetoed this bill.
SB832 was signed into law by the governor as 2025 Wisconsin Act 168. This law allows any pharmacy to be operated as a remotely supervised pharmacy if the pharmacist complies with the Pharmacy Examining Board’s rules.
AB668 was signed into law by the governor as 2025 Wisconsin Act 123. This law authorizes advanced practice registered nurses (APRN) who have completed 3,000 hours of supervised clinical experience and hold a master’s degree in psychiatric mental health nursing to perform an examination to determine whether an individual is competent to refuse medication or treatment.
SB575 was signed into law by the governor as 2025 Wisconsin Act 243. This law allows providers to include the costs of the drug prophylaxis in their application to the Department of Justice for an award to cover the cost of providing an examination to gather evidence regarding a sex offense.
AB969 was signed into law by the governor as 2025 Wisconsin act 231. This law makes changes to the laws governing the drug repository program. 1) Allows people from outside Wisconsin to donate to the program, and allows Wisconsinites to donate to drug reciprocity programs in other states. 2) Specifies what drugs can be donated. 3) Imposes current rules regarding procedure through statute. 4) Imposes rules for storage, packaging, and record keeping.
SB898 was signed into law by the governor as 2025 Wisconsin Act 167. This law adds two registered pharmacy technicians to the membership of the Pharmacy Examining Board.
SB417 requires assisted living facilities, nursing homes, or hospitals that are limiting visitors due to an outbreak or epidemic of a communicable disease to allow certain visits with residents or patients by a member of the clergy and, in compassionate care situations, an essential visitor. I was upset that the governor vetoed this bill that would support vulnerable people.
SB23 was signed into law by the governor as 2025 Wisconsin Act 102. This law expands taxpayer-funded healthcare for postpartum women.
I’ve had a few people ask me about my vote on the Postpartum Medicaid bill as the sole “no” vote in the Assembly (of 2 in both houses).
Please keep in mind that this bill expands taxpayer-funded healthcare coverage only and in no way affects any women on insurance plans purchased by herself or provided by a person’s employer.
I can certainly understand the perspective of those who support the bill. And I agree we need to do what is best for women and children and, really, for everyone.
I know supporters of this bill believe that passing this bill will result in lower maternal mortality rates for mothers. But the facts don’t bear that out. While Wisconsin is 1 of only 2 states without this specific expanded government program (so we have plenty of states to compare ourselves to), we are actually one of the better states for lower maternal mortality with only about half a dozen states with better maternal outcomes than us.
If this government program was truly the solution, shouldn’t we be in the bottom 2 and not among the top 10 most successful for mothers?
I know the program feels good. It sounds caring. But my duty to my state, my duty to my constituents, my duty to you, is to make governing decisions on facts and principles, not feelings and fallacies.
Moving past the comparisons we have from other states who have already implemented this policy, to the larger issue of expanding government controlled healthcare, I have certain foundational principled concerns regarding what the proper role of government ought to be. These principles guide my decisions as a lighthouse does a ship, and it is why you often see my votes cross party lines or even vote alone as I vote with these principles and not by political party.
While government healthcare expansion seems compassionate, and may even help some individuals in the short term, we must also consider a larger question, namely, has our society benefited from the continued expansion of welfare over the last century or has this instead contributed to the further breakdown of the American family, the foundational structure of our civilization?
Does any purported short term individual benefit from this policy also result in long-term harm to our society ultimately hurting the very people we are trying to help? I believe it does.
We continue to replace parents with Daddy Government. We’ve replaced Christian charity with state welfare. We’ve replaced Christ, the only king our founding fathers envisioned for our nation, and instead enthroned rulers in Madison and in D.C. begging that they will deign to give us a few scraps from their table, making us dependent on the all-powerful leviathan of government Thomas Hobbes wrote about 400 years ago.
We are meant for so much more than this. We are called as children of our heavenly Father, what a privilege! But the Lord warned his people about growing the power of civil government. He warned us what happens when we choose more government benefits over more freedom.
“He [government] will take your sons and make them serve [in his wars and in his fields]… He will take your daughters… He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his [bureaucrats]. He will take a tenth…of your vintage and…the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take… He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen…”
Will this one policy be the end of our freedom? Of course not. Could we have this one program in place and still have strong families relying on each other, their neighbors and their God? Surely. But this program is not the first, and it will most certainly not be the last. And each time we move just a bit more from the vision of freedom and prosperity our founding fathers had for our people, a vision that built the largest middle class in human history, resulting in more wealth in the hands of not just a political elite but everyday people.
The easiest vote I could have taken on this bill would have been to vote yes. Supporters would have applauded me for it, and because it seems so nice, even most small government conservatives would have swiftly forgiven me for it.
In-District Events
Saturday, May 23, American Legion Post #41 Brat Fry at 300 E Ann Street, Kaukauna from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. More information can be found here.
Saturday, May 23, Memorial Day Celebration at 18424 Tisch Mills Rd, Denmark from 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. More information can be found here.
Sunday, May 24, Memorial Day Celebration at 18424 Tisch Mills Rd, Denmark from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. More information can be found here.
Monday, May 25th, is the Appleton Memorial Day Parade at 9 a.m.
Monday, May 25th, is the Two Rivers Memorial Day Parade at 9 a.m.
Monday, May 25th, is the De Pere Memorial Day Parade at 10 a.m.
Monday, May 25th, is the Mishicot Memorial Day Parade at 12 p.m.
Monday, May 25th, is the Wrightstown Memorial Day Parade at 2 p.m.
Saturday, May 30, Mishicot FFA Alumni Tractor Pull at Mishicot Community Athletic Complex, Mishicot from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. More information can be found here.
Sunday, May 31, Tractor Pull at Larrabee Sportsman’s Club, Mishicot from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, June 7, Brown County Breakfast on the Farm at Tinedale Farms, Wrightstown from 8:00 a.m. to noon. More information can be found here.
Wednesday, June 10, Music in the Park at 7431 Dickinson Rd, Greenleaf from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.Â
Friday, June 12, Dive into Summer Cookout at 607 Dodge St, Kaukauna from 1:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. More information can be found here.
Sunday, June 13, Appleton Flag Day Parade at Downtown Appleton, starting at 2:00 p.m. More information can be found here.
Wednesday, June 17th through Saturday, June 20th is the Electric City River Jam in Hydro Park. More information can be found here.
Wednesday, June 24, Music in the Park at 7431 Dickinson Rd, Greenleaf from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.Â
Wednesday, June 24th through Sunday, June 28th is the Outagamie County Fair at 637 N Main St, Seymour. More information can be found here.
Thursday, June 25, Sundae Thursday at Central Park West, Two Rivers from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. More information can be found here.
Friday, June 26th, and Saturday, June 27th, is the Cool City Classic in Downtown Two Rivers. More information can be found here.
