From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— State Dem Party Chair Devin Remiker today blasted Republicans for failing to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies.
Rates are set to skyrocket for millions of Americans when the enhanced tax credits expire. Republicans in Washington, D.C., have rejected Dem efforts to renew the credits, criticizing the ACA as a failed endeavor.
Remiker at a press conference outside the state Capitol said the subsidies are “crucial.” He knocked the GOP-majority U.S. Senate for last week’s vote to reject a three-year extension Democrats proposed.
“Just this past week, I was talking to a member of my own family who was looking at what it would cost for them to be able to afford health care, and they simply can’t do it,” Remiker said. “They now have to figure out how they’re going to pay for insulin for diabetes in order just to get by. And that is a conversation that now 300,000 people in this state and their friends, family and loved ones are going to be having around dinner tables, in family rooms and over the holidays.”
He charged Wisconsin Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, who is running for governor, with betraying Wisconsinites and working people.
Senate Minority Leader Dianne Hesselbein, D-Middleton, Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer, D-Racine, and local business owners also spoke at the presser.
Chef Evan Dannells, who owns Madison-based Cadre, said his 10 full-time employees will see a total increase of about $18,000 for their health insurance. He said he will have to figure out how to pay them enough so they can have health care, because he doesn’t want them to go without.
Dannells said the ACA was the first time a small business owner like himself could expect employees to get benefits at a reasonable rate.
“So having this become more expensive again is just going to turn people away from small business and towards large corporate jobs because they’re going to have to go where the benefits are provided for them because they’re not going to be able to pay for the benefits that they have,” Dannells said.
A state GOP spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
— DATCP has reported the first case of bird flu among Wisconsin dairy cattle, found in a Dodge County herd.
The agency on Sunday announced the case of highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI, a widespread disease that’s led to outbreaks among U.S. poultry and dairy cows, along with limited cases among humans.
Samples from the Dodge County herd were tested by the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and confirmed at the National Veterinary Services Laboratories, according to DATCP. The agency says the affected farm was quarantined and sick cattle were separated for treatment.
The CDC website on the disease says public health risk remains low.
See the release below.
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