From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— Several Dem guv candidates at a health forum in Madison knocked “Make America Healthy Again” policies and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
During yesterday’s Wisconsin Health News event, seven candidates fielded various health-related questions on topics such as health insurance costs, their support of a BadgerCare public option and MAHA initiatives, such as barring food stamps from being used to buy junk food.
Rep. Francesca Hong, D-Madison, called the MAHA movement “a joke and a distraction” and said it is causing “immense harm” in communities.
“The fact that we would regulate, take away people’s freedoms in what they are able to purchase in order to remain on FoodShare is morally reprehensible,” Hong said.
Dem Gov. Tony Evers, who isn’t running for reelection, recently signed into law a bill to ban food stamps from being used to purchase candy or soda. That was in exchange for Republicans agreeing to $72.7 million and positions for the state Department of Health Services to ensure Wisconsin doesn’t lose federal aid for the program.
Milwaukee County Exec David Crowley said the overall goal of MAHA is about creating a healthier community, but the former state lawmaker raised concerns about the tactics being used when it comes to vaccines and FoodShare.
“I don’t think that we should be putting restrictions on what people can do, what we should be focusing on is the affordability aspect and access aspects,” Crowley said on food stamp restrictions.
Former DOA Secretary Joel Brennan said there are widespread agreements around overprocessed foods and living a healthy lifestyle.
“But what is dangerous is where we start to see vaccines and scientifically proven things being undermined at the federal level,” Brennan said.
Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, who has a background as a nurse and CDC epidemic intelligence officer, also weighed in on skepticism toward vaccines at the federal level. She said she supports the state’s move to reject vaccine guidance from the CDC under Kennedy, which rolled back recommendations for several childhood vaccines.
“These guidelines were not based on evidence … were not based on expertise, and so they are actually risking our children’s lives by putting these guidelines up,” Rodriguez said.
Meanwhile, former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes called Kennedy a “lunatic.” But he said there are some things on the preventative side HHS may have gotten right, such as increasing access to food and emphasizing exercise.
He said the MAHA movement has made public health “so much worse” and amplified disinformation.
Also at the event:
*Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, vowed to use “political power” to improve health care in Wisconsin.
“Every idea in the world can be wonderful, but if you do not have the political will to get it passed, the political skill to do so in what is going to be a very challenging legislative environment — one of opportunity, no doubt, but a narrow window of opportunity — then it doesn’t matter,” Roys said.
*Former WEDC Secretary and CEO Missy Hughes touted her newly announced health care plan, including proposals to allow the public to buy into BadgerCare and eliminate co-pays for prescriptions for chronic conditions, such as insulin.
“I’m really wanting to make sure that we’re addressing a very, very complicated problem in every different way,” Hughes said.
She said that includes creating a public option for BadgerCare and ensuring an increase in health care providers all across the state. The other Dem candidates have also voiced support for a public option.
The Dem primary for guv is in August.
— State health officials have rolled out a two-year plan for how to spend $31 million in opioid settlement dollars coming to Wisconsin, with the greatest share going to tribal nations.
The state Department of Health Services today announced details for allocating the $14.5 million Wisconsin received in 2025 through settlements with drug companies and other businesses, as well as the $16.5 million it will get this year.
The breakdown includes: $9 million for tribal nations; $6.5 million for room and board for Medicaid members getting addiction treatment; $3.5 million for preventing overdoses and infections disease; $3 million for community- and school-based prevention efforts; $2 million for law enforcement grants; $2 million for addiction treatment for pregnant women and mothers; $2 million for services for enrollees in the Birth to 3 program, and more.
Other elements of the plan getting $1 million or less include provider training, recovery coalitions, pharmacy training and family-centered treatment.
DHS says it’s already released $3 million in room and board funding to agencies serving seven Tribal nations and 66 counties, as well as $1 million in law enforcement grants for 16 county sheriff’s offices and one Tribal police department.
The plan comes as the state’s opioid overdose deaths have dropped dramatically, falling 42.5% from 1,422 in 2023 to 817 in 2024, according to figures from the agency.
“This funding has saved lives in Wisconsin,” DHS Secretary Kirsten Johnson said in a statement. “We have made significant investments in every corner of the state to fill the gaps and connect communities with the resources people need, when and where they need them.”
See the release below.
— A new study from UW-Madison finds longevity increased across all U.S. states and regions for those born between 1941 and 2000, clashing with earlier research that showed widening disparities.
The study, published recently in the journal BMJ Open, was authored by researchers in the university’s La Follette School of Public Affairs.
Héctor Pifarré i Arolas, an assistant professor of public affairs and study co-author, says the team’s findings show “universal gains” in life expectancy for all birth cohorts, sexes and states.
“States are not expected to experience equal gains in longevity, and convergence across states appears to have stalled since the 1950s, but we find no evidence of the radical increase in disparities across states suggested by some earlier estimates,” he said in a statement on the research.
The university references an earlier study by Theodore Holford of the Yale School of Public Health. It had found many southern states had “little gain or even declines” in life expectancy in the second half of the 20th century, in contrast to states including New York that saw more improvement, leading to greater disparities.
In some cases, the findings of the two research approaches differ widely — while Holford’s study estimated Mississippi saw no improvement in longevity for female residents over a 50-year period, the newer study found an improvement of about 7 years.
See the release below.
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