From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden and other lawmakers are urging the Department of Veterans Affairs to add a rare muscle disease to its list of presumptive service-connected conditions, in hopes of getting coverage for more veterans.
The bipartisan group of lawmakers late last week sent a letter to the federal agency’s leadership, detailing their concerns about inclusion body myositis, or IBM. They note the muscle disease is similar to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, in that it’s a rare, incurable neuromuscular disease.
It’s also more common among veterans than the civilian population, according to figures from the The Myositis Association, with 189 cases per one million veterans versus 15 cases per one million civilians. At the same time, veterans with IBM have much higher mortality rates and often get disease up to 15 years earlier than civilians.
But VA records show an 82% denial rate for IBM claims, Baldwin’s office says.
“Like ALS, IBM causes irreversible muscle weakness, loss of mobility and fine motor function, difficulty swallowing, and eventually respiratory failure … Yet unlike ALS patients, Veterans with IBM are not afforded a presumptive pathway to benefits, resulting in inconsistent adjudications and inequitable outcomes,” lawmakers wrote.
A total of 6,771 veterans were getting care for IBM as of July 2025, according to the letter. That marks an increase of 221% in diagnosed cases since 2010, “underscoring the growing impact of this debilitating disease and the need for further research” into what’s causing it, lawmakers wrote.
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— Former Vice President Kamala Harris during a Milwaukee rally ripped GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Tiffany for voting to cut federal healthcare funding.
Speaking yesterday afternoon at a campaign rally for Democratic guv candidate David Crowley, Harris knocked Tiffany for voting for the GOP budget reconciliation bill that cut $1 trillion from Medicaid over the next 10 years “to help millionaires and billionaires cut their tax bills.”
“What does Medicaid pay for? It pays for half the births in America. It helps pay for the medical care associated with that,” Harris said at the “Women for Crowley” event. “What does Medicaid help pay for? Rural hospitals. What does Medicaid pay for? The majority of maternal healthcare in America.”
In a statement ahead of yesterday’s rally, Republican Governors Association Communications Director Kollin Crompton called Harris and Crowley “both soft-on-crime, tax hiking liberals.”
Tiffany in a statement said Crowley “wants to bring Kamala Harris’ California playbook to Wisconsin.”
“Wisconsin rejected Kamala Harris once, and now it’s time to reject David Crowley and his tax-hiking, spending spree, and toll road agenda,” he said.
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Press Releases
– Sen. Baldwin: Leads effort to expand access to benefits for veterans with rare muscle disease
