From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— Dems today criticized cuts to Medicaid and the GOP-led Congress’ failure to renew enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits, warning Wisconsinites are losing access to their healthcare.
Sen. Brad Pfaff, D-Onalaska, on today’s Defend America Action call said that since U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, was narrowly reelected in 2024 there has been a “parade” of Trump administration officials in western and central Wisconsin, including President Donald Trump himself.
“But even with that, the people here in western and central Wisconsin are struggling and the support that the president and the congressman thought they had has evaporated,” Pfaff said.
Pfaff, who lost to Van Orden in 2022, said that is because “people are beginning to see what has happened with this economy and the fact that they are losing access” to healthcare.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act included nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, including through work requirements, mandatory decreases in some payments to providers and restrictions barring states from creating new or increased provider taxes.
According to a report Defend America Action released today, more than 270,000 Wisconsinites will lose healthcare coverage through the Affordable Care Act or Medicaid under the legislation. The report also states that around 25,000 Wisconsinites on Medicaid or ACA coverage have already lost or dropped their healthcare.
Also on the call, Dr. Kristin Lyerly, an OB-GYN who unsuccessfully challenged GOP U.S. Rep. Tony Wied for the 8th CD in 2024, said access to rural healthcare in Wisconsin is already an issue, and it’s poised to get worse.
“I have literally taken care of moms with high-risk pregnancies who delivered their babies on the side of the road, not because they didn’t want a hospital but because the closest hospital shut down and the next closest hospital wasn’t close enough — that is rural healthcare in America right now, and it is about to get much worse,” Lyerly said.
A state GOP spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
— UW-Madison researchers have invented a new sensor for measuring intracranial pressure, offering a less invasive alternative for assessing certain birth defects and other medical conditions.
WARF is touting the invention as a top licensing prospect in its healthcare portfolio of university research. It was created by a team of scientists including Prof. Daniel Cho, who’s also the co-founder and CEO of a Madison startup called CranioSure that won the 2024 Governor’s Business Plan Contest.
The sensor device is meant to improve upon the current approach to measuring intracranial pressure. This is a key metric for assessing risk for head trauma, the build-up of cerebrospinal fluid known as hydrocephalus and craniosynostosis, a birth defect where the bones of the skull join together too early.
But current methods for assessing intracranial pressure inside the skull are “highly invasive,” according to details provided by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. They involve implanting a pressure sensor through small holes made in the dura mater — the membrane around the brain and spinal cord — and observing the patient in the intensive care unit.
WARF notes the anesthesia required for this method can lower intracranial pressure and lead to inaccurate measurements, in addition to a “high risk” of complications from the procedure such as an infection.
To avoid these issues, the researchers created a small device that can be implanted during any neurosurgery for long-term monitoring of intracranial pressure. It’s implanted outside the dura mater, enabling the measurement of pressure between this membrane and the skull that correlates to intracranial pressure. This measurement can be done non-invasively with an X-ray.
“An accurate, non-invasive ICP pressure sensor is needed to directly monitor elevated ICP in children diagnosed with craniosynostosis during their developmental stages to minimize further complications,” authors wrote.
Craniosynostosis can lead to abnormal head shape in those affected as well as hindering brain growth, and is often treated with surgery to enable normal development. Once the prematurely fused bones are disconnected through the surgery, regular monitoring is done for decades to ensure proper skull development.
In the patent for the device, the researchers noted current methods for assessing that development — including measuring symptoms, specialized scans and more — have low sensitivity.
“If undetected, inhibited brain growth can cause developmental delays or cognitive disfunction, therefore timely intervention is desired,” they wrote.
Cho’s company, CranioSure, has a software application for assessing infant head shapes to detect their risk of craniosynostosis, supporting earlier interventions.
— Personal nutrition company GenoPalate is touting new peer-reviewed research showing its genetics-based profiles can lead to better health outcomes.
The Milwaukee firm this week announced results from the research published in the scientific journal BMC Nutrition, which focused on 874 GenoPalate members who had gotten a personalized nutrition report from the company for at least one year.
The study found those who reported changing their behaviors after getting the genetic nutrition insights were much more likely to report improved health, compared to those who had no behavior changes. An average of 57% of those reporting behavior changes saw health improvement, while just 12% of those who didn’t change their behaviors improved.
In addition, “modest” weight changes seen among participants were still “significantly different” over the study period, authors wrote. Those who changed their behaviors had an average weight loss of 0.5%, while those who didn’t change saw an average weight gain of 1.5%, the study found.
Hector Guillen, the company’s chief scientific officer and corresponding author of the study, says genetics should be used as a “practical tool” to help people better understand their own biology and make informed choices about their nutrition and other health behaviors.
“This study reinforces what we have believed from the beginning: personalized nutrition is most effective when it empowers the users to identify actions relevant to their lives,” he said in a statement.
GenoPalate says it’s working to expand its nutrition platform beyond genetic analysis, wrapping in blood biomarkers, dietary habits and other lifestyle information to provide more personalized recommendations for its users.
Yi Sherry Zhang, the company’s founder and an executive at California’s Buck Institute for Research on Aging, says the study offers validation for the notion that biological insights can result in real behavioral changes.
“Ultimately, health outcomes improve not because someone learns something about their biology, but because that knowledge empowers meaningful action,” she said.
See the release below.
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— A group backing Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez in the governor’s race is up with a second TV ad praising her plan to lower healthcare costs.
Wisconsin Forward Fund has now spent more than $820,000 on ads, according to AdImpact, and the new spot began running in the Madison and Milwaukee media markets last week.
Less than eight weeks out from the Aug. 11 primary, former DOA Secretary Joel Brennan is the only candidate who has gone up on the air through his campaign. He’s now spent more than $270,000, according to AdImpact. State Sen. Kelda Roys, D-Madison, announced a $500,000 media buy earlier this week, though AdImpact had yet to track any of it on the air as of early this afternoon.
The group Wisconsin Future Rising has spent more than $117,000 backing Milwaukee County Exec David Crowley.
The narrator in the new Wisconsin Forward Fund ad says Rodriguez is the granddaughter of dairy farmers who grew up in a union household and became a nurse and public health leader. The narrator then adds she won a Republican-held Assembly seat in Waukesha County then joined “Governor Evers and won statewide as lieutenant governor.”
The narrator then pivots to GOP gubernatorial frontrunner Tom Tiffany, who “voted to raise healthcare costs for Wisconsin families.” The narrator adds Rodriguez would create a public option to lower premiums and prescription drug costs.
“Tom Tiffany raised costs. Democrat Sara Rodriguez has a plan to lower them,” the narrator says to end the spot.
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