MADISON, Wis. — Assembly Democratic Leader Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) released her floor remarks, as prepared:
“As we enter into our final days of session, we have no time left to waste.
There are two essential issues that we haven’t addressed yet that are critically important to women and people across Wisconsin.
We’ve been advocating for postpartum expansion for a decade. In 2024, we know that every month 700 women who had given birth in the last 60 days lost their healthcare coverage.
Gail’s law is also essential, it would help get rid of the financial barriers for Wisconsin women and their families to find out sooner if they have breast cancer, we know that it would save lives.
These issues are also extremely personal to me.
To that end, I wasn’t expecting to or planning to talk about this today, but I want my Republican colleagues to understand that there are real consequences to their obstruction.
I’m pregnant. My husband, Hudson, and I are expecting our first child in June and we could not be more excited!
As I’ve been reflecting during this pregnancy, I’ve been feeling very lucky.
Lucky to have quality, affordable health coverage for myself and for my baby when they arrive.
For too many Wisconsin families, that health insurance is cut off far too soon – we are one of only two states that removes healthcare coverage for low income women after just 60 days. This needs to end. We must pass postpartum medicaid expansion now.
Another issue that is very personal for me is Gail’s Law.
When I was 12, my mother was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. It was very possible that she was going to die. My grandmother had breast cancer, two of my aunts had breast cancer. It’s very possible that over the course of my life, I will have breast cancer, like so many women in our state.
My family is very lucky we caught this. The women in my life got the care they needed.
I have access to health care, but so many women do not.
Frankly, I want to ask every single one of my Republican colleagues if they think it’s okay for women in my position to lose their lives because of lack of access to healthcare. I want them to consider whether they are going to continue to refuse to take action on postpartum and breast cancer screening and or whether they will join with us to pass these bills today.
Republicans could bring both of these bills to the floor TODAY to SAVE LIVES. Democrats have been fighting for these policies all session long, and we’re going to put everything we have into making sure we don’t leave without getting this done. Today, we are going to propose these amendments on every single bill and ask our Republican colleagues to join us in passing these life saving policies. Wisconsinites deserve this.
