From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— Dem lawmakers say their legislation to help cover the cost of patient lifting devices for assisted living facilities would lead to better care for residents after a fall.
Sen. Kristin Dassler-Alfheim, D-Appleton, and Rep. Lori Palmeri, D-Oshkosh, today rolled out the two bills.
They note many residential care facilities, nursing homes and other such facilities have policies preventing staff from helping patients after they’ve fallen down. Instead, they’re directed to call 911 and wait for emergency responders to come help, according to today’s announcement.
The lawmakers note local responders are having to respond to hundreds of thousands of lift assist calls per year.
“Many of these folks aren’t even injured — they just need a hand getting back on their feet,” Dassler-Alfheim said in the release. “We need to start empowering healthcare workers to safely assist the residents under their care, and that’s what these bills do.”
One bill, LRB-1002, would establish a program under the state Department of Health Services providing grants to facilities for patient lifting devices. Authors say staff could use these devices to help uninjured residents who have fallen down, rather than having to call emergency medical services.
The other, LRB-1003, would create fall prevention and recovery training programs for workers at nursing homes and other assisted living facilities.
Palmeri says patients end up shouldering most of the cost for policies preventing staff intervention in case of a fall.
“If someone in an assisted living facility needs a lift assist but no transport, Medicaid and Medicare don’t pay for that — the bill goes to the facility and the facility passes it on to the resident,” she said.
See the release below.
— Dems and reproductive rights advocates marked the 53rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, warning women continue to be at risk following a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning abortion rights nationally.
Wisconsinite Patricia McFarland at the Capitol press conference hosted by advocacy group Free & Just yesterday said she was speaking for women who had died from unsafe abortions, adding: “I’m a lucky one who survived.”
McFarland said pre-Roe v. Wade in 1970, she traveled to Mexico City alone for an abortion after her birth control failed and she became pregnant at 21 years old.
She said her boyfriend at the time sold his car for $600 so she could afford to travel to Mexico. She said she was put back on a plane after receiving 12 shots to stop the bleeding and was told to visit a clinic right away if she wanted to have children in the future. McFarland now has two children.
“Roe v. Wade gave women protections that I wish I had when I was 21. I am devastated that the rights guaranteed under Roe have been stripped away from those who need it the most today,” McFarland said.
Also at the press conference, Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, charged politicians who have opposed abortion rights with creating a “dystopian hellscape.” She criticized GOP proposals related to abortion, including a bill that would require doctors prescribing an abortion drug to provide patients with a “catch kit and medical waste bag” to prevent pathological waste from entering waterways.
Anti-abortion group Wisconsin Right to Life also hailed the end of Roe v. Wade.
“Today we celebrate Roe being sent to the ash heap of history,” Executive Director Heather Weininger said yesterday in a statement. “But this moment is not a finish line; it is a call to action. Wisconsin Right to Life is stepping up to meet this moment by continuing our efforts to change hearts and minds to favor life, and to support mothers and their children through pregnancy and beyond.”
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